Nose, face, slice

Earlier this week, the UN passed a resolution introduced by Israel.

In a historic first, a committee of the United Nations General Assembly adopted an Israeli-initiated resolution on working matters. The resolution deals with agricultural technology for development, a relatively apolitical matter. But even such apolitical issues have not managed to squeeze past Arab opposition in the past. Supported by 118 countries, the resolution was introduced early this year.

But there’s a catch.

There were 29 abstentions, mostly from Arab countries. It is all but certain to be formally adopted by the General Assembly soon.

This sort of insult doesn’t seem to much interest the New York Times, but the Jerusalem Post observed:

On Tuesday, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman lauded the passage of an Israeli-drafted resolution in a UN committee for the first time ever. “For Israel, this is a very dramatic development and a historic day at the UN. This makes Israel a much more normal and acceptable member of the UN. One of our main aims is to not be a one issue country and to bring awareness of Israel’s excellence to the world,” Gillerman gushed. We hate to rain on this parade, but our own diplomats giving credence to claims that the UN is in any way treating Israel as “normal and acceptable” is like thanking a bully for slapping a new “kick me” sign on our backs.

More extensively the Post argues:

Even this “dramatic moment” was polluted by the incessant Arab campaign to delegitimize Israel. The utterly unobjectionable resolution, which urged member states to assist with agricultural development in developing countries, passed by a vote of 118 to 0, but with 29 abstentions and an even larger number registered “absent.” Most of the countries that could not bring themselves to vote for this banal resolution only because it was introduced by Israel were Arab or Muslim states, including many of those whose foreign ministers showed up in Annapolis, ostensibly to promote peace with Israel. Among these were Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. But the list of those not willing to stand with Israel even to promote development, largely in Africa, also included non-Muslim African states such as South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Many African states did support the resolution, but many others either abstained or were absent. In short, while this “breakthrough” resolution could be cited to exemplify the isolation of the Arab bloc, it also dramatically demonstrates the refusal of this same bloc and the countries that blindly vote with it to remotely treat Israel as a nation like any other – namely a nation with the right to exist – let alone a peace-seeking democracy under terrorist attack.

Elder of Ziyon rightly characterizes this as another example of Misoziony.

OK, so it is not that the Arab nations – even the ones supposedly at peace with Israel – have anything against the resolution. They just cannot stand to agree with anything Israel says, no matter how innocuous. It is easier to abstain than to even give the appearance of being on the same side as the hated Zionists on any issue. This is beyond politics – this is just a seething hatred for anything that Israel does; this is misoziony. The very idea of agreeing with the Jewish state on anything sticks in the throats of the Arab world. For them, emotion trumps logic, and visceral hate makes real peace impossible.

Israel has an outreach program called Mashav and, yes, it aids Arab governments too through this program. The subject of the “historic” resolution was agricultural technology. Israel actually is doing something about spreading the relevant know how around the world. For example: Jordan

In cooperation with Jordan, MASHAV operates a demonstration farm in the Karak region for intensive sheep’s milk production and processing, introducing the advanced “Awassi” sheep to the country which provide approximately four times the milk yields of indigenous sheep. The project includes over 400 sheep, a milking parlor and state-of-the-art mini dairy for the production of yoghurts and cheeses. In addition, the project’s sheep have been used to upgrade local flocks through breeding activities.

Egypt

Israel actively cooperated with Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation on Egypt’s national program of land reclamation (the “Mubarak project”) aimed at resettling and training unemployed university graduates on desert lands along the Nile delta. Cooperation centered on on-site demonstration activities, including professional training programs and the establishment of an irrigation demonstration plot at the Maryut International Training Center in Nubariya, Egypt and short-and long-term consultancies. In the context of this program, over 5,000 Egyptians were trained both in Israel and in Egypt and many joint R&D projects were successfully launched.

Palestinian Authority

Over 775 Palestinians trained in Israel in the first three quarters of the year 2000. In particular, there was fruitful cooperation in the fields of Agriculture, Environment, and Civil Society with major projects being launched between Israeli and Palestinian Ministries, hospitals and utility services providers.

But that stopped.

Unfortunately, in September 2000, the Palestinian Authority issued a clear directive to all official Palestinian bodies and NGOs to suspend all cooperation with Israel. It is our hope that with advances in the political process, it will be possible to once again achieve the high level of cooperation which we once enjoyed.

Admittedly Israel hasn’t implemented a huge number of programs for the Arab world, but the programs do exist. And the small number is a function of Arab resistance not of Israeli willingness. In fact it’s ironic that in the case of the Palestinian that they spurn efforts to make them more independent and embrace those that seek to perpetuate their dependency.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.