Electing Iran to the UN Disarmament Commission is like electing Sudan to the UN Human Rights Commission.

What are we to make of the fact that Iran was unanimously elected to the United Nations Disarmament Commission?

Utter disbelief perhaps.  Shocked but not surprised.  An uneasy feeling one has been involuntarily cast in a play written by Beckett.  Or worse Harold Pinter.

Thomas P. Kilgannon, President of the Freedom Alliance, had this to say in an article he wrote for the New York Post.  He writes, “Iran on the Disarmament Commission; it’s rather like naming a member of the Ku Klux Klan to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.”  Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen likened Iran’s ascension to “appointing a serial killer to serve as a juror in a murder trial.”  Ros-Lehtinen’s GOP Senate colleague, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, was less original but no less indignant.   Senator Coleman said, “Having the Iranians serve on this commission is like asking the fox to guard the hens, and will only ensure its ineffectiveness.”

Let me add my own for good measure.  Electing Iran to the UN Disarmament Commission would be like electing Sudan to the UN Human Rights Commission.

Oh, wait!  The UN General Assembly did elect Sudan to the Human Rights Commission.  For that matter, they also elected Cuba and Zimbabwe..

It is a classic case of this would be funny if were not so serious.  

The activities of the UN Disarmament Commission ought to be monitored with close scrutiny.  They are scheduled to meet until April 28th when they are expected to present their recommendations to the UN General Assembly.  The presence of Iran on the Commission is no accident.  The members who elected Iran knew exactly what they were doing.  April 28th is also the day that Iran is scheduled to be referred to the UN Security Council if it not does comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Simply put, Iran’s presence on the UN Disarmament Commission gives them an international platform from which to illegitimize Israel.  Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi, who is also Iran’s Ambassador to the UN, argued that Israel’s stockpile of nuclear weapons was a major source of "concern with regard to global peace and security.”  Ambassador Danesh-Yazdi also emphasized that Israel was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  

What chutzpah!!!  This from a man whose President has called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”  This from a man whose President has repeatedly denied the Holocaust.  Four days after Ambassador Danesh-Yazdi made his remarks to the Disarmament Commission, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had this to say about Israel.  “The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm,”  Ahmadinejad said.  

Funny, but I don’t recall Israel declaring its intention to wipe any of its Middle East neighbors off the map or deem them deceased plant life that needed to be put out of their misery.

But in the august chambers of the UN those facts do not matter.  Ambassador Danesh-Yazdi’s sentiments were echoed by representatives of Egypt and Jordan, supposed Middle Eastern allies of Israel.  Amr Abou El Atta of Egypt and Saja S. Majali of Jordan also emphasized Israel not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  Atta said that Israel’s absence from the treaty “threatened regional security,” while Majali said that Israel signing the treaty “would defuse existing tensions at the regional level, lead to tangible progress on the other bilateral tracks in the peace process, and enhance confidence-building measures among all the parties.”  I guess she means it would defuse existing regional tensions just like when Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon and Gaza.

All of this leads me to believe two things.

First, I believe that the UN Disarmament Commission will recommend that the UN General Assembly condemn Israel for not having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  And I believe the UN General Assembly would pass such a resolution as a means to divert attention away from Iran and towards Israel.

Second, in so doing, the passage of such a resolution all but ends any chance of the UN Security Council calling for sanctions against Iran.  Coupled with Russia and China’s opposition to imposing sanctions against Iran, the best one can expect from the UN Security Council is a watered down resolution that “expresses concern” with Iran but does not call for any specific action.  Yes, I am sure Ahmadinejad would wet himself if the UN Security Council passed a resolution against Iran.  Wet himself with laughter.

In its persistent efforts to illegitimize Israel, the UN is prepared to legitimize Iran and its Holocaust-denying President.  And they have done so.  The United States, Israel and all democratic countries committed to the rule of law ought to illegitimize the UN by withdrawing from it and creating an alternative international body.  This would expose the UN for what it truly is.  A democratic forum for countries that do not practice democracy at home.