UNESCO

In Paris, at the United Nations Headquarters, UNESCO, the UN agency we have supported for years is now a persona non grata in the diplomatic and monetary largess of the United States.

UNESCO voted yesterday to admit Palestine into the agency organization as a member. Guess what we did? We responded by cutting off funding for the agency.

Here’s the explanation from an article in the Washington Post.

“Acting under a legal requirement to cut U.S. funds to any U.N. agency that recognizes a Palestinian state, the State Department on Monday announced that the United States has stopped funding the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization because of the vote. Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters that the Obama administration would not make a planned $60 million payment to the agency due this month.”

I understand the need to support Israel. The Middle East has been a volatile region since ancient Egyptian times, but perhaps it is time for sensible heads to end the exchange of violence. It is the only way a change can take place.

Two days ago rocket exchanges and airstrikes between the two sides have left 13 dead. If you were to place thirteen bodies on your front yard or in your living room you would have a perspective of loss not understood in any news report.

It’s time to talk. It’s time to let go of the hate and embrace the only thing that can take its place. LOVE, RESPECT and COMPASSION.

I once asked the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir what it would take to have a lasting peace in the Middle East. She said, “When Israeli Mothers teach their children not to hate and Palestinian Mothers teach their children not to hate then we will have peace in the Middle East”.

The United States needs to rescind it non-payment order. UNESCO is an education, scientific and cultural organization, not a political entity or a pawn. We, the United States, need to be an arbiter of peace not a contributor to the perpetuation of violence.