Time to Get the U.N. Back in Line With U.S. Interests

According to BuzzFeed News, House Republicans are working on legislation to reduce or eliminate U.S. funding for the United Nations. Outraged in the wake of a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, GOP representatives in the House Freedom Caucus are planning to meet on Monday to choose one of two proposals to address the funding issue.

The bill will either decrease funding directly or, in an even bolder stance against the international body, make funding voluntary and put it to a congressional vote every two years.

“One is an incremental step; the other is really a herculean leap,” said Rep. Mark Meadows.

Meadows told BuzzFeed that he thought Republicans could work across the aisle to defund the U.N.

“Israel is a bipartisan issue, so I think that [if legislation] is measured and appropriate, we could pick up a lot of Democrats to support it as well,” he said.

Republicans in the Senate are also expected to take up similar legislation.

“I believe Congress should end U.S. taxpayer funding for the United Nations unless and until the U.N. reverses this anti-Israel resolution, and I believe there will be considerable support in Congress, I hope in both parties, to do exactly that,” Sen. Ted Cruz told BuzzFeed.

The resolution has also been sharply condemned by South Carolina’s Sen. Lindsey Graham, who released a statement blasting President Obama for letting the vote go through.

“The United Nations will regret this vote and I hope the Obama Administration will realize the massive mistake they made on their way out of the door,” Graham said.

Things get cloudy when you start talking about Israel and the Palestinians; even some on the right grow weary with the GOP’s unbalanced focus on our Middle Eastern ally. But really, Israel is only an issue because the left makes it an issue. And part of that – a big part of that – is the United Nations. The U.N. has levied more than 60 condemnations against Israel over the past decade. In the meantime, they’ve issued exactly zero resolutions against Russia, China, Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia.

As a humanitarian organization, the United Nations has done a lot of good around the world. As a political body, however, it has repeatedly embraced brutal dictatorships while condemning peaceful Western democracies. The liberal notion of moral relativism has reduced the U.N. to a sad joke – one that isn’t so funny when you realize the consequences.

Point blank: If the U.N. is an enemy to our allies, then it is an enemy to the United States. And if that’s the case, then why would we ever spend another dime of taxpayer money supporting it?