The UN Fails to Rise to the Occasion. Again.

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Today’s Must Reads

• The UN is failing.
• Walls are prevailing.
• Xi’s economy is ailing.

The UN Is on a Road to Nowhere

Remember these?

Back in the day, no Halloween costume was complete without a heavy, coin-filled UNICEF box tied around your neck. Everyone from Selena Gomez to Jennifer Lopez to the Brady Bunch endorsed the organization’s efforts to help kids around the world — as exemplified by that box. Nowadays, however, UNICEF’s month-long Halloween campaign relies on QR codes instead of cardboard. That’s progress, I guess: People are more likely to have Venmo than spare change. Still, by replacing the tangerine-colored box with a digital square of black and white pixels, UNICEF has lost a ubiquitous symbol. For more than 70 years, those boxes were in classrooms, churches and playgrounds. Now, they’re only on our phones, amid dozens of other attention-seeking apps.

And it’s not just UNICEF: The influence of the United Nations itself is dwindling, too. “One way or another, pretty much every one of its 193 member nations is fed up and increasingly convinced that the UN is fast making itself irrelevant,” Andreas Kluth writes (free read). And part of it is the international equivocation over the Israel-Hamas war. According to Bloomberg News ’s Henry Meyer, Israel’s current campaign to destroy Hamas involves ground forces moving gradually into the Palestinian territory while backed up by tanks and artillery. The civilian death toll — including from a lethal strike Tuesday on the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza — “has sparked growing international criticism, while leading to a dire humanitarian crisis,” Henry writes.

“Where’s the United Nations in all this?” Andreas asks. “Oh, right, nowhere.” Although the organization is meant to facilitate multilateral cooperation and collective peacekeeping, it’s failing to live up to its principles. The watered-down resolution recently passed by the General Assembly may demand “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” but it fails to mention Hamas, the hostages or Israel’s right to self-defense:

Making matters worse is the gridlock within the UN Security Council, which consists of five permanent veto-wielding members — the US, UK, France, Russia and China — and a rotating cast of 10 other countries. The council can dispatch troops to keep peace in trouble spots, but there’s a catch: Resolutions are only approved when all permanent members agree, and they rarely do. Initially, the US’s proposed council resolution got shot down by Russia and China. “Then it was Russia’s turn to get rejected. Its resolution called for an immediate ceasefire and condemned all violence against civilians. That’s rich coming from a nation that’s been bombing, abducting, maiming and killing Ukrainian civilians for more than 600 days,” Andreas writes.

This inability to come up with a solution is costing both Israel and Palestine dearly. Just today, UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder said: “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” And the longer the UN fails to act, the fewer children there will be for UNICEF to help.

Bonus Israel-Hamas Reading:

• Emmanuel Macron’s tour of the Middle East highlights Europe’s struggle to make diplomatic headway on Israel and Gaza. — Lionel Laurent
• While the US focuses on Gaza and Ukraine, Taiwan should beef up its own military capabilities to deter China. — Karishma Vaswani

Further Reading

Stop complaining about clean-energy subsidies and start agreeing on better rules to govern them. — Bloomberg’s editorial board

Small business bankruptcies tell us a lot about the economy’s vulnerabilities. — Jonathan Levin

Japan’s central bank is moving away from yield curve control, but don’t tell anyone. — Daniel Moss and Gearoid Reidy

Without a proper paper trail, Google’s culture of secrecy is far from damning. — Dave Lee

America’s vast safety net helped strengthen its economy. — Betsey Stevenson

Loadshedding isn’t South Africa’s only problem — its logistics network is also in dire straits. — Alexander Parker

If your default password is “password,” you’re obviously committing securities fraud. — Matt Levine

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Notes: Please send cowboy boots with lifts and feedback to Jessica Karl at [email protected].

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.