Biden's expensive UNESCO folly

"As if President Joe Biden hadn’t created enough problems overseas, he is now accelerating efforts to rejoin the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Biden's State Department argues we should return to UNESCO to counter growing Chinese influence, but this is a misdirection play. In fact, the administration is pursuing a liberal Holy Grail, participating in multilateral bodies whether or not doing so serves U.S. national interests. Among many problematic U.N. agencies, UNESCO stands out. Rather than focusing on its core missions, it has repeatedly engaged in expensive, wasteful programs and destructive, highly politicized behavior...

The Palestinian Authority (formerly the Palestine Liberation Organization), pursuing its long-standing strategy to create 'facts on the ground' in the Middle East through U.N. diplomacy, successfully targeted UNESCO in 2011. U.N. agencies permit only 'states' to be members, and neither the PLO nor the Authority have ever met international definitions of 'statehood.' Nonetheless, the PLO hoped that persuading the U.N. to endorse its 'statehood' would thereby force Israel to acquiesce...

In 2017, the Trump administration, seeing no evidence of UNESCO reform, once again announced U.S. withdrawal, followed by Israel. Now, however, reports from Jerusalem indicate that Biden, resurrecting Obama’s game plan, is pressing Israel not to oppose his efforts to rejoin UNESCO..."