The United States and Israel is withdrawing from UNESCO

The United States and Israel declared that they are no longer a part of the UNESCO. The US has not been paying its membership bill since 2011. I know; it seems weird. Why does the United States withdraw from such a peaceful and important international cultural organization? The answer is simple: because of Israel.

Israel has a bad record of non-compliance of UN resolutions and many principles of international law. One of them was the wall. Israel built a wall dividing the Palestinian territory into two parts. Many neighborhoods, towns and cities, and as a result, families were divided by the wall. Israel said that the wall was for the just reason to keep terrorist away from Israel. The problem was taken to the United Nations. Every single part of the UN stood against the wall, Israel did not care and kept building the wall anyway.

Another one was settlements. By the financial and military support of Israel, Israeli settlers founded many neighborhoods in the Palestinian territory. Soon, the neighborhoods that they founded were declared as Israeli territory. It is like declaring independence of many Irish, Chinese, Russian, German, French states in the United States. Israel built roads, hospitals, schools, and military posts for the settlements. Only Israeli settlers can use these facilities. Imagine that there is a road between your home and your farm, but you are not allowed to use that road. The United Nations wanted Israel to stop encouraging people to start new settlements. The result was very predictable: Israel said: No way.

How can Israel recklessly disregard the international law and human rights? The answer is simple: Absolute and unquestioned support of Americans. They know that whatever they do, there will be no consequences at all. Once an Israeli bulldozer ran over a US citizen, a human rights defender, trying to defend the Palestinian settlement which was about to be destroyed by the Israeli army to open a new area for Israeli settlements. What happened? Nothing. The very same United States cut ties with many nations and even declared war when its citizens were murdered.

Today, UNESCO, a UN organization, was targeted by the United States and Israel since it accepted Palestinian Authority as a full member of the organization. What did UNESCO do to make them angry? Well, it is simple. It published reports about Israel and what they do. One of the reports were revealing Israel's mishandling the religious sites of Muslims and Christians, which are the world heritage. UNESCO is not a single group of politicians. It mandates academicians and experts to conduct the researches and projects. What the report says was the opinion of experts, not politicians. However, Israel and the US got angry because the organization did not cover the report. The report also revealed many human rights violations, including freedom of worship. This point was considered by Israel as a"political discrimination against Israel."

Unfortunately, the current US government liked this opportunity. After the US stop paying its membership share, it hits up to 600 million dollars, and the current management does not want to pay it. The US taxpayers may say that they also do not want to pay this. But, here is the facts guys. Once you start ruling the world, you need to keep your prestige good. The military superiority will not last unless intellectual and academic superiority follows it. We enjoy being American; we do buy cheap stuff; we do not wait for visa tail in any country we visit; all the nations of the world use our currency and pay us for it. There is a cost of being the "leader of the free world." If we do not want to pay it, all privileges we have will be gone forever. That is it.

Live long and prosper