Stupid Law At Work

As widely expected, Palestine scored a diplomatic victory yesterday when UNESCO granted Palestine full membership into its body. In a vote of 107 for and 14 against, the victory was marred however by the United States saying that it will stop its funding for UNESCO.

Now some Americans may feel that the United States do not really need UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, but your country is going to face a big problem down the road. The cutting off of the funding comes due to a U.S. law that prohibits U.S. funding to any U.N. organization that grants full membership to any group that does not have "internationally recognized attributes" of statehood from the United States.

Basically that means the United States cannot fund any U.N. agency that recognizes Palestine as a full member. This will be a huge problem down the road as Palestinian officials have indicated that they intend to apply for full membership with as many U.N. agencies as possible! With the wide margin they got with the UNESCO vote, the Palestinians will win a lot (if not all) of them. That means the United States will have to cut off funding to all these U.N. agencies which will mean a massive loss of influence for the U.S.

For all the funding on the line, you can be sure countries like China, India, Russia, Brazil etc are more than happy to take up the tab to gain influence at the U.N. at the expense of the United States. The bottom-line is simple; if the United States does not engage the U.N., they have no influence at the U.N.

That is why I strongly hope, for their sake, the United States do not cut off funding to UNESCO. The simple fact is that the stupid law in question is insane. No matter how strong an ally Israel is, they are not worth the United States destroying its own influence at the United Nations. Israel is one country, the U.N. is a world body through which the United States can exert influence throughout the world. Simple logic would tell you which is more important.