Hypocrisy Exposed

Report hailing Gaddafi's human rights record scheduled for adoption in current session

GENEVA, February 28, 2011 -- UN Watch, which heads the Global NGO Campaign to Remove Libya from the UN Human Rights Council, called on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign minister Catherine Ashton, who are today addressing the 47-nation body in Geneva, as well as UN rights chief Navi Pillay, to urge the council president to cancel a planned resolution praising Libya's human rights record, scheduled to be adopted in the current session. (See quotes of praise below.)

Despite having just voted to suspend Libya from its ranks (expected to be finalized by the UNGA tomorrow), the UN Human Rights Council, according to the agenda of its current session, is planning to "consider and adopt the final outcome of the review of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya." According to the council's timetable, the lengthy report hailing Libya's human rights record will be presented on March 18, and then adopted by the council at the end of the month. The report, which the UN has published on the council website, is the outcome of a recent session that was meant to review Libya's human rights record.

Although the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism is often described by council defenders as its saving grace, the vast majority of council members used it to falsely praise the Gaddafi regime for its alleged promotion of human rights. Only a handful raised genuine issues.

The report also includes praise of Libya's record by the regime's representatives -- click here for quotes. Given that Libya's UN diplomats have defected and admitted that the Gaddafi regime is a gross violator of human rights, it would be nonsensical for the UN to now adopt this false report.

UN Watch called on the council president to acknowledge that the session on Libya was largely a fraud, withdraw the report, and schedule a new session in which council members would tell the truth about the Gaddafi regime's heinous crimes, which were committed over four decades yet ignored by the UN. Libya's long-suffering victims deserve no less.

The UN report's summary notes that delegations "commended" Libya, and that they "noted with appreciation the country’s commitment to upholding human rights on the ground."

democracy in the middle east

Jeff Buckley-- Everybody Here Wants You

Rufus Wainwright-- Across the Universe

Sufjan Stevens-- John Wayne Gacy Jr

A King's Speech-- my column this week in Jewish Journal and Huffington Post

If I were advising the president or prime minister of Israel, I would suggest he go on Al Jazeera this week and deliver this message to the people of the Middle East:

Dear Neighbors:

What is happening right now in our region is historic. You, the great people of the Middle East, are rewriting history. You are rising up and saying, "Enough! Enough with oppression, enough with humiliation. We want opportunity, freedom and human rights." Young and old, men and women, religious and secular, you have risen up as one and demanded a better future.

We, the people of Israel, want to be part of that better future.

It is not a coincidence that we are descendants of the same father, Abraham. Although we might be in conflict now, this was not always the case. We had our golden eras when we cooperated and respected each other like the biblical cousins that we are. We cherish to this day stories of the great Jewish and Muslim philosophers engaging each other in search of higher truths.

One of those higher truths is that we have so much in common as children of the same God and as members of the human race. We all want to laugh, provide for our families, lead meaningful lives, fall in love and be happy. Those are not Jewish or Muslim or Christian ideals - they are human ones, and they can bring us together.

Think of how infinitely proud and happy our God would be to see His Muslim and Jewish children end their conflicts and live in harmony.

Yes, Israel has made its share of mistakes. The challenges we face have humbled us. In truth, it hasn't been easy to build a nation while constantly having to defend ourselves. Sometimes, this has brought out the worst in us and made us look like we care only about our own security. We deeply regret the displacement of so many people that occurred in 1948, when we had to defend ourselves against invading armies after the Arab rejection of U.N. Resolution 181, which partitioned the land for two states.

We're human. It does hurt to feel unwelcomed in a neighborhood we have called home for 3,000 years.

We have made peace with two of our neighbors, but that is not enough. We have made further offers and even evacuated settlements, but to no avail. Because our Palestinian neighbors are deeply divided between Gaza and the West Bank, we fear we don't have the strong partner we need to make a deal - and that further evacuations might lead to more violence against us.

Despite our fears, we still yearn for peace. But it is not enough to just meet and "negotiate directly." If both sides don't bring to the table good faith and a willingness to compromise, our hopes will only be false hopes.

The fact that our Palestinian neighbors refused to negotiate last year for the first nine months of our 10-month settlement freeze was not a sign of good faith. Neither are their efforts to undermine us in international forums. Israel has already demonstrated its ability to make painful compromises in all areas, including settlements. Now is not the time for either side to demand preconditions that belong to the negotiating table. Now is the time to sit down in good faith and try to resolve our differences. We say to our Palestinian neighbors: We are ready to begin tomorrow morning. Are you?

We bring the same message to all our neighbors of the Middle East: We are ready to meet tomorrow morning to begin the journey of reconciliation. We dream not only of peace but of a future in which we would all enjoy the fruits of peace. We dream of the day when delegations from Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and others will visit Israel and see that we are not the enemy, but a friend-in-waiting.

We can cooperate in trade, commerce and culture. We can share our technological and medical innovations to improve quality of life. We can enjoy each other's movies, poems, stories, music and food. Our rabbis can talk about God with your imams. In short, we can create a new golden era of mutual respect and cooperation.

We might disagree, even on some important things, but one of the great human values is not to allow disagreements to turn into animosity and violence.

Beyond our own disagreements, we see too much pain today on the faces of the millions of Arabs rising up throughout the Middle East. We urge all leaders to honor their people by trusting that freedom, dignity and human rights will lead to a better future.

Israel would love nothing more than to have free and democratic neighbors, and we want to be your partner in this momentous endeavor. Cynics will claim that this partnership is impossible - that you have been taught only to hate Jews and Israel, and that it will take a hundred years, if not more, before we can reconnect as the children of Abraham.

Maybe so, but I have no doubt that if our patriarch Abraham were alive today, he would hold our hands and bless us. He would bless us that we should find the strength to transcend our animosities and embark on our journey of reconciliation.

And he would remind us that Allah is with us, watching, hoping we will succeed.

Shalom and As-Salamu Alaykum.

David Suissa is a branding consultant, weekly columnist and the founder of OLAM magazine. For speaking engagements and other inquiries, he can be reached at suissa@olam.org or at davidsuissa.com.

Sting-- Fragile Planet

Ana Calvi-- Jezebel

Wilco-- Either Way

Anna Calvi-- I'll Be Your Man

The 22-State Solution

My column this week in the Jewish Journal and Huffington Post:

Has the world ever witnessed such a radical and overnight transformation of one country? Have we ever seen a nation, in 18 short days, go from a place that represents darkness to one that represents hope, renewal and liberation?

I'm not talking about Egypt; I'm talking about Israel.

In the branding business, we have this thing called "truth transformation." In a nutshell, it says that if your brand has "issues," you can fix them only by finding a deep and meaningful truth. A legendary example is Pepsi, which made great headway against Coke by showing that "in a blind taste test, more people prefer the taste of Pepsi."

Well, it turns out that in a blind taste test, more Arabs prefer the taste of Israel.

I'm not sure people realize yet the extraordinary nature of this transformation. Israel, the most maligned, boycotted and condemned country on the planet, the nation held perennially responsible for the frustrations of millions of Arabs across the Middle East, turns out to have what those frustrated Arabs are now clamoring for: freedom, human rights and a system that protects those rights.

Overnight, this brave and besieged little country has gone from demon to model - from being the curse of the Middle East to its potential cure. We may not see such a radical shift of perception again in our lifetimes. 

And yet, hardly anyone is talking about it. I see two reasons. First, the hero country that ought to be promoting this transformation, Israel, is focused more on immediate security than on exporting its democratic gold to its neighbors. This is not unreasonable. Israel already has serious threats on its doorsteps - like Hamas and Hezbollah - and its deep wish is that the chaos of newfound freedom in Egypt will not result in a new security threat.

Second, and more important, the global forces that have worked for years to undermine Israel are now suddenly on the defensive, and they're desperate to keep you focused on "big, bad Israel." They can see the writing on the wall. The edifice that took them decades to build - making Israel global enemy No. 1 and the Palestinians the world's glamour victims - is now in real danger of crumbling.

Just look at the facts. There are 330 million Arabs in the Middle East region who, according to Freedom House, live in countries considered "not free." While those Arabs languished for decades in misery and oppression, where do you think the world concentrated its attention and its billions in aid? That's right, on the Palestinian Arabs who represent less than 1 percent of that total.

And what did the world get in return? A split group of permanent victims who teach the hatred of Israel while refusing to make any real concessions for peace. Talk about a crummy deal.

That's why I wouldn't want to be with the Palestinian PR machine right now. They worked so hard to pull a Houdini and convince the world that Israel is the scourge of humanity and Palestinians the world's biggest victims, and now look - millions of competing Arab victims come to Tahrir Square and steal the attention.

From now on, anyone who pushes for a boycott of Israel can and should be denounced as a hypocrite who couldn't care less about Arab victims not connected with Israel. And good luck to anyone trying to claim with a straight face that pressuring Israel on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should remain the central mission of the world - not when millions of other Arab victims who have lived for so long under the "occupation" of brutal dictators are finally getting their voices heard.

And not when those Arab voices are craving the very freedom and human rights that Israel, with all its warts and imperfections, already offers. 

It is also laughable now for peace-process junkies to claim that a three-state solution (Israel, Palestine and Hamastan) is "more urgent than ever," and would help fix other Middle Eastern problems, like the threat of a nuclear Iran or bringing human rights to the Arab world.

Israel can surely keep chasing the dream of peace with Hamas and the Palestinians, which would be wonderful if it ever happened. But if the world is really serious about responding to the revolution of Tahrir Square, then the real urgency is to stop ignoring the 99 percent of Arab victims not named Palestinians.

In other words, instead of the narrow-minded "two-state solution" mantra that is repeated ad nauseam, the future of the Middle East should revolve around a more just and inclusive "22-state solution," whereby the nations of the region would gradually be exposed to the liberating and dignifying values of democracy. Maybe the United Nations, instead of issuing another condemnation of Israel, can send a mission to the Jewish state to pick up some pointers on how they might introduce democratic institutions and economic prosperity to the rest of the Middle East. 

I'm not holding my breath. The industry of maligning Israel is a deeply popular one, and the obsession with Palestinian victimhood is a global phenomenon. Still, the wrenching process of "truth transformation" has begun. The fact that the freest Arabs in the Middle East live in Israel is a truth that Israel's enemies cannot bear. In the post-Tahrir Square era, more and more Arabs will come to see that Israel was never the enemy - but a model to aspire to. 

Once the shock of that truth wears off, we'll see how many will taste it.

David Suissa is a branding consultant and the founder of OLAM magazine. For speaking engagements and other inquiries, he can be reached at suissa@olam.org or at davidsuissa.com.

Letter to George Soros: Israel, Stumbling Block or Shining Light?

From this week's Jewish Journal and Huffington Post:


Dear Mr. Soros:

I saw that you wrote in The Washington Post last week that Israel is the "main stumbling block" to democratic progress in Egypt. You also said that "as a committed advocate of democracy and open society, I cannot help but share in the enthusiasm that is sweeping across the Middle East."

I'm writing to let you know that I share your enthusiasm for democracy and open societies, but I need to challenge your view of Israel.

For many years now, I have been struck by the tragic absence of basic freedoms and human rights throughout the Middle East. You might have seen the latest findings from the independent Freedom House, which reports that "The Middle East and North Africa remained the region with the lowest level of freedom in 2010, continuing its multiyear decline from an already-low democratic baseline."

They define freedom based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Of the 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, 14 countries (population: 330 million) are "not free," 3 countries (population: 39.3 million) are "partly free" and only one country (population: 7.6 million) is "free."

That free country is Israel.

Since you are a world-famous liberal and the founder of the Open Society Foundations (it works "to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens"), I figured that Israel's democratic success would be a source of pride. I hoped that you might look at the turmoil in the Middle East and then point with pride to Israel and say: "Hey, look, there's an exception! This is what the protesters in Egypt are screaming for - their rights and freedoms, just what Israel already offers!"

But you didn't do that. Instead, you actually called Israel "the main stumbling block" to the hopeful evolution of an Egyptian democracy. Not just a stumbling block, but the main stumbling block!

This, with due respect, is ludicrous. As if Israel has the magical power to "block" the evolution of democracy in Egypt or any other country, even if it wanted to.

And as if some real and concrete stumbling blocks aren't already there in Egypt, like a history of anti-democratic regimes that have ruled the country since before Israel was born; or the absence of myriad democratic institutions that are essential to the flourishing of a civil society; or the widespread dissemination of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and anti-anything Western; or the fact that the only significant organized group in the country - the Muslim Brotherhood - is enamored more with the theocracy of Shariah law than the democracy of Thomas Jefferson.

Aren't these "made in Egypt" stumbling blocks big enough for you? You still had to find a way to squeeze in Israel as the main culprit?

In a sense, I see where your obsession with blaming Israel comes from. It hit me the other night, when professor Micah Goodman of Israel was speaking at a private home about his new book, "The Secrets of the 'Guide to the Perplexed.' " Our personalities and characters are guided by our actions, he said, not the other way around. We become our actions.

You, Mr. Soros, have been criticizing Israel for so long that you have become that criticism. Even when you are presented with a glaring example of the value of Israel's open and civil society, you refuse to give the country its due. You must criticize Israel, you must find a way to blame it, because this is what you do - and this is who you are.

You are like many Israel bashers who call themselves "pro-Israel." They're so used to criticizing Israel under the guise of "tough love," that when they see an opportunity to show a little pride, they, well ... they quickly change the subject. "Israel still hasn't made peace with the Palestinians! Israel must make peace now more than ever!" As if Israel doesn't crave peace and has never made any offers or sacrifices for peace.

God forbid Israel bashers should ever take a time-out from criticism and say, "Israel must spread its democratic values throughout the Middle East!" But no, that would make Israel look too good, and shift the attention to the 330 million Arabs who are not free, who are not under Israel's rule, and whose voices have been drowned out for decades by the world's obsession with blaming Israel for the ills of the Middle East.

Well, thanks to the extraordinary human eruption now happening in the Middle East - an eruption that is about freedom and dignity and not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - it will become harder and harder for people like you to make your "blame Israel first" arguments. I have no doubt, though, that you will keep trying.

So I am challenging you to a live debate: "Israel: Stumbling Block or Shining Light?"

Because I don't have a private jet, let's do it in Los Angeles.


David Suissa is the founder of OLAM magazine, OLAM.org and is a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. He can be reached at Suissa@olam.org.

My column this week-- "Israel Never Looked So Good"-- has struck a nerve.

Over 6,000 "likes" and 2,000 "shares" in a liberal pub like Huffington Post. Who knew? Thanks to all who "shared."

Yemen Blues

Découvrez Découvrez Mondomix.com, le magazine des Musiques et Cultures dans le Monde!

Israel Never Looked So Good

My column this week in the Huffington Post and the Jewish Journal:

They all warned us. The geniuses at Peace Now. The brilliant diplomats. The think tanks. Even the Arab dictators warned us. For decades now, they have been warning us that if you want "peace in the Middle East," just fix the Palestinian problem. A recent variation on this theme has been: Just get the Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to "freeze" their construction, and then, finally, Palestinian leaders might come to the table and peace might break out.

And what would happen if peace would break out between Jews and Palestinians? Would all those furious Arabs now demonstrating on the streets of Cairo and across the Middle East feel any better? Would they feel less oppressed?

What bloody nonsense.

Has there ever been a greater abuse of the English language in international diplomacy than calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the "Middle East peace process?" As if there were only two countries in the Middle East.

Even if you absolutely believe in the imperative of creating a Palestinian state, you can't tell me that the single-minded and global obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the enormous ills in the rest of the Middle East hasn't been idiotic, if not criminally negligent.

While tens of millions of Arabs have been suffering for decades from brutal oppression, while gays have been tortured and writers jailed and women humiliated and dissidents killed, the world -- yes, the world -- has obsessed with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As if Palestinians -- the same coddled victims on whom the world has spent billions and who have rejected one peace offer after another -- were the only victims in the Middle East.

As if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has anything to do with the 1,000-year-old bloody conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or the desire of brutal Arab dictators to stay in power, or the desire of Islamist radicals to bring back the Caliphate, or the economic despair of millions, or simply the absence of free speech or basic human rights throughout the Arab world.

While self-righteous Israel bashers have scrutinized every flaw in Israel's democracy -- some waxing hysterical that the Jewish democratic experiment in the world's nastiest neighborhood has turned into an embarrassment -- they kept their big mouths shut about the oppression of millions of Arabs throughout the Middle East.

They cried foul if Israeli Arabs -- who have infinitely more rights and freedoms than any Arabs in the Middle East -- had their rights compromised in any way. But if a poet was jailed in Jordan or a gay man was tortured in Egypt or a woman was stoned in Syria, all we heard was screaming silence.

Think of the ridiculous amount of media ink and diplomatic attention that has been poured onto the Israel-Palestinian conflict over the years, while much of the Arab world was suffering and smoldering, and tell me this is not criminal negligence. Do you ever recall seeing a U.N. resolution or an international conference in support of Middle Eastern Arabs not named Palestinians?

Of course, now that the Arab volcano has finally erupted, all those chronic Israel bashers have suddenly discovered a new cause: Freedom for the poor oppressed Arabs of the Middle East!

Imagine if those Israel bashers, during all the years they put Israel under their critical and hypocritical microscope, had taken Israel's imperfect democratic experiment and said to the Arab world: Why don't you try to emulate the Jews?

Why don't you give equal rights to your women and gays, just like Israel does?

Why don't you give your people the same freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to vote that Israel gives its people? And offer them the economic opportunities they would get in Israel? Why don't you treat your Jewish citizens the same way Israel treats its Arab citizens?

Why don't you study how Israel has struggled to balance religion with democracy -- a very difficult but not insurmountable task?

Why don't you teach your people that Jews are not the sons of dogs, but a noble, ancient people with a 3,000-year connection to the land of Israel?

Yes, imagine if Israel bashers had spent a fraction of their energy fighting the lies of Arab dictators and defending the rights of millions of oppressed Arabs. Imagine if President Obama had taken 1 percent of the time he has harped on Jewish settlements to defend the democratic rights of Egyptian Arabs -- which he is suddenly doing now that the volcano has erupted.

Maybe it's just easier to beat up on a free and open society like Israel.

Well, now that the cesspool of human oppression in the Arab world has been opened for all to see, how bad is Israel's democracy looking? Don't you wish the Arab world had a modicum of Israel's civil society? And that it was as stable and reliable and free and open as Israel?

You can preach to me all you want about the great Jewish tradition of self-criticism -- which I believe in -- but right now, when I see poor Arab souls being killed for protesting on the street, and the looming threat that one Egyptian Pharaoh may be replaced by an even more oppressive one, I've never felt more proud of being a supporter of the Jewish state.

Hamid El Shaeri-- Arabic groove