The U.N. Erases an Infamy

By voting overwhelmingly to repeal its infamous resolution characterizing Zionism as “a form of racism and racial discrimination,” the U.N. General Assembly has finally moved to erase the moral insult it inflicted on Israel 16 years ago and to redeem its own honor.

The anti-Zionism resolution was conceived in Cold War opportunism and enacted in an atmosphere heavy with political cynicism. The Soviet Union, a chief sponsor, saw it as a cost-free way to curry favor with Arab-bloc and other Muslim countries. At the same moment, Arab oil producers were using the carrot and stick of their recently gained control over petroleum prices and supplies to win influence in Third World states, including influence over their U.N. votes.

Zionism as a political movement emerged near the end of the 19th Century in response to European anti-Semitism. Its motivating dream was to reconstitute a Jewish state in Palestine, nearly two millennia after the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. That goal was achieved in 1948 after the General Assembly voted to partition Palestine, then emerging from under British mandate, between Arabs and Jews.

It was always clear that the anti-Zionism resolution had almost nothing to do with any real concerns over alleged racism or abuses of civil rights by Israel. Its most prominent sponsors, communist and Arab regimes well known for the oppression and abuse they inflicted on their own citizens, were proof of that.

This week’s vote at the United Nations was a dramatic indication of how much the world has changed since the mid-1970s. But the vote also showed continuity. Among the opponents of repeal were such despotisms as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam. Opposition from this quarter only added luster to the victory achieved by the measure’s backers. The United States lobbied hard to mobilize 111 states behind repeal. It did the right thing, and so did a General Assembly willing to rectify a sordid wrong.