UN Assembly Elects Israel as Committee Chair for First Time

[bemildred]

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly has elected Israel to chair one of its six major committees for the first time, a decision denounced by the Palestinians and Arab nations.

In Monday's secret ballot election in the 193-member world body, Israel received 109 "yes" votes. Nobody voted against Israel but there were 23 abstentions, 14 invalid ballots, and 43 votes for other countries in the Western European and Others group which nominated Israel to chair the assembly committee dealing with legal issues.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told reporters: "I am very proud to be the first Israeli to serve as the chairman of a committee."

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/06/13/world/middleeast/ap-un-united-nations-israel-election-victory.html

[geek tragedy]

1. interesting, though it's hard to appreciate the significance without

knowing who else gets chosen for these committees--if it's US-China-France or if it's also governments like Sudan and Belorus.

[bemildred]

2. I think they just get tired of all the political posturing sometimes.

I know I would.

Anyway, it looks good: "See, we are fair to Israel sometimes ...."

[geek tragedy]

3. the UN getting tired of political posturing is kind of like a bee hive getting tired of buzzing

Israel being among the "Western European and others" of course gives a hint as to its long-term status/predicament--amongst its neighbors, but not of them.

[bemildred]

4. Well, OK then, you can't posture about everything at once, so maybe it was just

time to posture about something else.

Yep, geography is destiny.