• Culture
• Cyber Rav
• Editor's Commentary
• Events
• Holidays
• News
• Other Viewpoints
• Shalom
• Travel
• Archives

• Brotherhood
• Business
• Community
• Culture
• Cyber Rav
• Editorials
• Health
• Letter to the Editor
• News
• People
• Rabbi's Message
• Travel

Dr. Yehuda Lancry
A United Nations Miracle

by Gad Nahshon

Israel's permanent representative in the U.N., Dr. Yehuda Lancry, believes that in the last year the traditional anti-Israeli majority in the U.N. has shrunk. Dr. Lancry, a modest experienced diplomat who served as a member of the Knesset and as Israel's ambassador to France, does not take credit for himself but in the U.N.'s extended community, he is being considered to be the one who has contributed to the Israeli success in this anti-Israeli organization. He has encountered the anti-Israeli majority to the blind anti-Israeli block. He has to encounter the Palestinian delegation which manages its propaganda machine ignoring the peace process.

In his office Dr. Lancry explained to me that Ehud Barak's commitment to peace gave Israel a good momentum in the U.N.: "Many countries expressed sympathy to Israel in the last General Assembly (The Millennium) and even Fidel Castro shook hands with Barak. He pointed out that the last anti-Israeli resolution after the new Intifada was an Arab failure. Only 92 countries voted 'yes' but 48 abstained and six voted against. Germany, for example, abstained. But some countries such as the Ukraine, surprised Israel. This country, who is responsible, historically, for many pogroms and the Holocaust (Babi-Yar!), should not support the Arabs whose goal is to destroy Israel.

Dr. Lancry also pointed out the miracle: an Israeli victory. For 20 years Israel has not felt the taste of a victory, a real success. Recently, the security council refused to adopt a Palestinian resolution which could enforce Israel to welcome a group of U.N.'s observers in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It was an Israeli success and a personal victory to Dr. Lancry and the Israeli delegation in the U.N. Recently, the Palestinians are looking to force Israel to accept international intervention, a dangerous precedent for Israel. Also, they promoted a new strategy: "The Palestinian Law of Return." Dr. Lancry told me: "I am against this idea."