Susan Rice: Attacks on Israel at UN undercut peace

‘Anyone who cares about the international system has to be concerned when one member state is unfairly singled out,’ says US envoy

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The barrage of attacks on Israel at the United Nations undercuts the quest for peace, said Susan Rice, the US envoy to the body.

“At its best, the UN does extraordinary things such as: keep the peace, help save untold civilians from Qaddafi in Libya, midwife the new nation of South Sudan, and empower women and girls worldwide,” Rice said Thursday at a luncheon in New York where she accepted the American Jewish Committee’s Distinguished Public Service Award.

“But the UN isn’t at its best when it comes to Israel. In fact, it’s sometimes at its worst,” Rice continued. “Anyone who cares about the international system has to be concerned when one member state is unfairly singled out.”

Rice described Israel as enduring “a barrage of obsessive, unbalanced, and relentless criticism” at the United Nations.

“That undermines the trust between the parties that Secretary of State John Kerry is working so hard to build,” she said. “It also undermines the UN’s own highest values. The UN should be a place where conflicts are cooled, not inflamed—where confidence is built, not eroded.”

Rice lamented last month in an address to the Reform movement that an outsize portion of her time at the United Nations is spent defending Israel.

comments