The most important election no one is talking about

"...The person chosen to lead the United Nations will inherit an institution facing one of the deepest moral crises in its history. The next secretary-general will not simply manage a bureaucracy. They will determine whether the UN can restore its credibility, rebuild trust, and return to its founding principles.

After nearly a decade under Secretary-General António Guterres, the United Nations stands at a crossroads. An organization created to defend peace, uphold international law, and prevent atrocities has suffered a profound ethical crisis. Instead of strengthening the UN, this era has witnessed the erosion of its authority and the weakening of public confidence in its institutions. One of the clearest examples of the damage Guterres inflicted on the UN is the way UN-affiliated organizations have handled Israel’s war against terrorism.

UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, has caused unprecedented damage to the reputation of the organization it represents.

For years, Israel warned that Hamas had deeply infiltrated UNRWA. Yet, at the peril of Israeli citizens, those warnings were dismissed by many in the international community. Israel and the United States revealed UNRWA employees with links to terrorist organizations. Hamas repeatedly used its facilities, including schools in Gaza, to indoctrinate Palestinian children, and in some cases, conduct attacks against Israelis.

No international organization can maintain credibility while ignoring such failures. The damage was not only operational. It was moral. The UN system suffers when an institution created to promote peace becomes associated with those who promote violence.

The politicalization of the United Nations during Guterres’ tenure has also reached unprecedented levels. The organization that claims to represent international neutrality has too often appeared unable or unwilling to apply its standards consistently.

The most troubling examples came when Israel was placed on UN blacklist related to conflict-related sexual violence without any factual evidence. Israel was listed next to some of the world’s most brutal terrorist organizations. These decisions came less than three years after the October 7 massacre, the darkest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. A day when Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, and kidnapped Israeli civilians.

While the UN secretary general has visited conflict zones around the world, he has not visited Israel since October 7, 2023. That is a shameful decision that is terribly disappointing.

The secretary general’s placement of Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy, alongside terrorist organizations responsible for some of the worst atrocities of our time was not only deeply offensive. It represented a moral failure of historic proportions..."