Articles by Aaron Jacob

Two initiatives that claim to help the Palestinian people are currently making waves at the UN. Both support the unilateral and unconditional advancement of Palestinian statehood. Sadly, if successful, these resolutions would have the opposite effect, setting back the fulfillment of Palestinian national aspirations.

Near the end of this month, the UN Security Council will convene to renew the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon for another year. But UNIFIL's mandate to confirm the implementation of Council resolutions regarding Lebanon will remain unfulfilled unless the Council takes the necessary measures to uphold its resolutions.

The concept of “elite” or “elites” is much vilified these days. Outside Israel, the term elite is repeatedly used against Jews, who are blamed for modern society’s actual or presumed ailments, such as income inequality, globalism, and immigration. However, the hostility towards the elite has not skipped Israel, where political parties have sought to cultivate long-held grievances against those who allegedly look down on their less educated or economically fortunate fellow citizens.

The Russian war on Ukraine, and the seeming powerlessness of the United Nations to halt it or seriously punish its instigator because of the veto power that the Russian Federation wields in the UN Security Council, has reignited a long-running debate about reforming the world body’s most important organ.

By revoking resolution 3379, the UN determined that Zionism is not a form of racism, a determination it has not made regarding any other national movement. Clearly, this has been a setback for those seeking to use the UN as a platform to advance their extreme anti-Israel agenda. Will they learn from this experience and act differently in the future? Sadly, Israel’s adversaries have not relented.

What went wrong between 1967 and 1973? The answer lies in two false assumptions. Israeli leaders had believed that the next war would look the same as the previous one. But the gravest mistake was the embracement of a concept, promoted by then-defense minister Moshe Dayan, that Egypt would not attack unless it had first matched Israel in airpower.

The UN Security Council will convene in August, as it does every year, to renew the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Unless the Council takes the necessary measures to ensure that its resolutions regarding Lebanon are upheld, UNIFIL’s mandate will remain unfulfilled.

The indecisive results of the last Israeli election, the fourth in two years, are generally attributed to controversies surrounding Prime Minister Netanyahu. However, the focus on Netanyahu overlooks some of the more fundamental divisions within the Israeli society, which lie at the heart of the current political stalemate. The most important of these divisions are the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the religious-secular divide.

Hezbollah is a threat to peace and security in the region and beyond. It is also the main impediment to the fulfilment of UNIFIL’s mandate, a mandate which the Security Council recently renewed without any significant changes. It’s high time the Council upholds its resolutions regarding Lebanon.