United Nations: Altar of Lip-sync, Graveyard of?Peace

405 East 42nd Street, New York is where irony goes to die?—?again and again, year after year. The theme song at the UN: together for the advancement of peace! Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN it was a swamp of anti-Semitic bile and trashed the peace deal. Never before has an Israeli PM mocked a US President with such impunity. The wars have killed thousands and grief has compounding consequences. The UN?—?crippled by its structural flaws worsened by hijacking of peace by veto wielding P5?—?must review the history of the collapse of the League of Nations.?

Shankkar Aiyar | The Third Eye | The New Indian Express | 29 Sep 2024

405 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017, USA. It is the address of the United Nations. It is where irony comes to die?—?again and again, year after year. The phenomenon was live-streamed across the world this week from the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly which, among other pious objectives, is focused on “acting together for the advancement of peace”.

The timeline of events presents a stunning account. On Thursday, a joint statement by a bloc of 12?—?the US, Australia, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK and Qatar?—?stated that escalation was “neither in the interest of the people of Israel nor Lebanon”. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken conveyed the message and it was presumed Israel was on board.

Come Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strode onto the assembly podium and unleashed a fusillade of words. He called the UN “this swamp of anti-Semitic bile”, the “anti-Israel flat-earth society”, sought a “demilitarised and de-radicalised Gaza”, and vowed to continue the campaign against Hezbollah until it was defeated. The 21-day ceasefire crafted by the US was dead on arrival.

The rejection in speech was followed by defiant military action. Within the hour of Netanyahu’s speech, Israel launched a blitzkrieg of bunker-buster missiles in a densely-populated area in the Lebanese capital Beirut. The focus was the headquarters of Hezbollah, the target was Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the location was the Haret Hreik area in Dahiyeh. Israel’s Dahiyeh Doctrine?—?the use of massive disproportionate force to achieve ends?—?was in play.

Rarely has an Israeli prime minister mocked a US President with such impunity?—?shortly after the bombing in Beirut on Friday, Joe Biden said the US had “no knowledge” of the attack. In October 2023, following the terror attack by Hamas, Biden advised Netanyahu not to ‘repeat mistakes’ made by the US after 9/11. Since then Blinken, who has boarded Air Force Two for over a dozen trips to the region, said in Tel Aviv that “how Israel defends itself matters”.

The advice has not mattered. In the year since the October 2023 terror attacks, the war in Gaza has killed over 41,000, nearly 100 hostages continue to suffer in captivity, Gaza is in ruins, the war between Hezbollah and Israel has displaced nearly 300,000 people on both sides of the border. We know from history that grief has compounding consequences. UN Secretary General António Guterres, who said on Wednesday “hell is breaking loose” in Lebanon, hasn’t yet added to the imagery.

The UN is clearly crippled. The UN Charter states, “We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” While it is true that there has been no world war since 1945, it is equally true that the UN has failed to resolve internal fault lines to end wars across the world. A report by the Geneva Academy observes that there are 110 armed conflicts across the world, of which 45 are in West Asia.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has been raging since February 2022?—?since 2014, if one counts the Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Besides Netanyahu, the other leader under the spotlight is Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is estimated that nearly a million persons have been killed or injured in the Russia-Ukraine war and vast regions have been devastated. Mind you, a plethora of UN resolutions arguing for Russia to withdraw have mostly faltered and high-level briefings have stumbled at the veto gate.

Central to support in war and peace is affiliation to the P5 or the five permanent members of the Security Council, and especially to the US regime?—?as evident recently from the meetings sought by Keir Starmer, Netanyahu and Zelenskyy. On Friday, Zelenskyy hedged his bets and sought an audience with former US President Donald Trump, who promised that he would end the war as soon as he comes to power?—?a bet on individual insurance over institutional assurance.

While peace has been elusive, the war economy has enriched the military-industrial complex. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the US Congress has voted for five bills with the authority to spend $175 billion, of which $69 billion is in arms and military support. The package for Israel is estimated at $14.3 billion, besides moral and military support. The rising spending has improved the profit outlook of arms manufacturers, improved their sales and market capitalisation to $1.03 trillion.

The UN has been rendered into an altar of doublespeak and a graveyard of peace. It is hostage to a post-war narrative and the Security Council doesn’t represent the new world?—?that includes countries such as India, the largest democracy and fifth largest economy. This is worsened by the use of vetoes to serve narrow interests by the P5, defeating multilateralism. Indeed, since the war in Ukraine, the veto has come into play 17 times?—?10 times by Russia, four times by the US and thrice by China.

The ‘rules-based world order’ that delivered prosperity is unravelling into ideological blocs. Economic and social disruptions are upending societies. A world simmering with strife can scarcely afford a dysfunctional UN. The collapse of the League of Nations?—?the hubris of Robert Cecil followed by the rise of Chinese and German nationalism leading to World War II?—?holds valuable lessons. The UN must reinvent itself to avert a world at war.

Shankkar Aiyar, political economy analyst, is author of ‘Accidental India’, ‘Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India’s 12-Digit Revolution’ and ‘The Gated Republic –India’s Public Policy Failures and Private Solutions’.

You can email him at [email protected] and follow him on X / Twitter @ShankkarAiyar. This column was first published here. His previous columns can be found here.