108 Days to Go
Can We Do Something at the UN?

By Sherwin Pomerantz

There are now 108 days remaining to the opening day of the United Nations General Assembly’s 2011 session in New York and the proposed vote to grant the Palestinians recognition for statehood.

First of all thank you CANADA, for your strong stand at the G8 meeting in France where you insisted that the statement issued about Israel not include support for negotiations based on the 1967 armistice lines. Canada knows what it means to be a friend to Israel and Pres. Obama might take a lesson from his principled neighbor to the north.

Canada`s actions at the G8 Summit speak to us as well vis-à-vis the upcoming vote in the UN to recognize Palestinian statehood. Any number of people whose intellect I respect have let me know over the past few days that they think the vote in the General Assembly is a foregone conclusion and that there is no value in trying to convince the solid bloc of supporters to change their minds. I disagree. And for the proof we just need to look at Deauville, France and the G8 deliberations.

President Obama came to France with the intent of walking away with a strong statement of support for an Arab-Israeli peace based on the 1967 armistice lines. But there were a few people of principle who felt that this was not a move that would help Israel nor contribute to achieving peace in the region. Those people, against all odds, prevailed and the statement issued by the G8 made no reference to the `67 armistice lines.

So minds can be changed but only if individuals make their voices heard and state their positions. I believe the same is true vis-à-vis the UN vote in September. It is simply assumed that the Arab world along with most of the non-aligned nations will rubber stamp the proposal to grant recognition to a Palestinian state. But why is that a foregone conclusion? Has world Jewry and our friends who care ever bombarded the UN delegates with letters of protest on critical issues of Israel`s survival? Probably not because for many years we believed that it was a foregone conclusion that this was all pointless.

Well, that may be correct but not necessarily and we will never know until we try. It seems to me if each UN delegation received 10,000 letters objecting to the ratification of this damaging resolution what would happen?

• First of all, the news media around the world would hear about the fact that UN delegations are being deluged with mail against the resolution. They would sit up and take notice and give the campaign even more strength and credibility.
• Second, it is generally assumed by public representatives that each letter received mirrors the opinions of 100 other people who did not take the time to write. So, 10,000 letters to a UN delegation means that there are a million people out there who feel the same way.
• Third, to be sure these delegates get their marching orders from headquarters in their home countries. But there is no doubt that if this campaign were successful, headquarters would hear about it as well and at least give their country`s position some further thought.

We can all sit back and do nothing telling ourselves that this will do no good. That`s the easy way out. The difficult task is to believe that we individual members of society can have an effect, that we can change people`s minds and that we can make a difference. If we believe that, then we have no choice but to act. And if we do not act, we have only ourselves to blame for the results.

Attached is the updated list of UN legations through the letter K (still working on the rest). Writing these letters is a time consuming process so if you agree that this can be useful, feel free to begin now. Hopefully by the end of the week the full list will be available. The world community must know that we will not stand in silence while our enemies work to destroy us. Our voices must be heard and this is one easy way to make that happen. Hope you will do so.