Would Either Susan Rice--Or The UN--Have A Job Without Israel? (Updated)

Last week, The Daily Caller commented on Susan Rice's record as the US Ambassador to the UN. Actually, Rice is more noted for her lack of a record at the UN. The Daily Caller notes that

a study released by the uber-serious non-profit group Security Council Report suggests that the past year has been the most inactive Security Council since 1991. Rice missed crucial negotiations on Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, she failed to speak out when Iran was elected to the Commission on the Status of Women and three other UN Committees, she failed to call-out Libya when they were elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council, she recently delivered an Iran sanctions resolution with the least support Iran resolutions have ever had and she called her one and only press conference with the UN Secretary General on the issue of texting while driving. For an administration that promised to utilize the UN and improve our reputation around the world, its dinner party circuit strategy isn’t making America more secure.

But all is not lost. As it turns out, Susan Rice did find an issue to take a stand on.
As Evelyn Gordon writes, Susan Rice Is Doing Something at the UN: Targeting Israel

But Haaretz reported yesterday that she has found time to do one crucial thing: lobby Barack Obama to put heavy pressure on Israel to agree to a UN probe of its May raid on a Turkish-sponsored flotilla. And today the Jerusalem Post reported that Israel has indeed capitulated: Defense Minister Ehud Barak informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week that “in principle,” it’s willing to participate in the probe he is organizing.

One would almost think that Rice sees her job at the UN limited to one single issue--an outlook that is apparently shared by many at the UN:

After all, I haven’t noticed Ban suggesting UN probes of any other country’s military operations — say, Turkish operations against the Kurds, Iran’s attacks on its own citizens, coalition operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, or African Union forces in Somalia, to name just a few of the dozens of armies engaged in combat worldwide every single day. Many of these operations result in far more civilian casualties than Israel’s flotilla raid did — even if you deny the evidence provided by video footage of the raid and assume these casualties actually were civilians rather than combatants.

Come to think of it, considering all of the countries and all of the hot spots in the world which the UN will not investigate and highlight because of the coalitions of countries that insure silence on embarrassing issues--if Israel was not around, just what would the UN do to justify its existence?

I guess the UN is one more thing to add to the list to blame Israel for.

UPDATE: It looks like the Secretary General of the UN, Ban ki-Moon, also sees Israel as an easy way to brush up his resume:

Ban's list of accomplishments is meager and the prevailing image among diplomats and analysts in New York is that Ban is an uninspiring bureaucrat, lacking leadership skills, who has not left a mark on the UN during his four years at its helm.

"The Secretary General had several goals in forming a UN probe of the flotilla incident," a senior diplomat told Haaretz on Monday. "He aspires to be recognized as an active player in the Middle East and sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a potential way to strengthen his position."

Above all, the diplomat said, Ban views the flotilla incident as a way to overshadow the recent accusations leveled against him.

I wonder how many in the media focus on Israel for the same reason...

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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