Greek mythology tells us that once, long ago, all the evils of the world were contained in a box, sealed and given to Pandora. Eventually, succumbing to curiosity, she opened it and all the evils were released. Of course, the opening and releasing were easy, as to the capturing back of all evil and re-sealing of Pandora’s box, well, that’s a different story!
Late October 2011, a proverbial Pandora’s box was opened when UNESCO decided to include the Palestinian Authority on its roaster of member nations. The approval required two thirds of UNESCO general assembly and passed by 107 to 14 (52 abstentions). Almost immediately, the State Department announced that its funding of UNESCO would cease. It is now clear that the catalyst to the State Department’s decision was the legal requirement to stop funding any agency that would recognize Palestine. Yet, one is to hope that there was also a shred of moral or ethical motivation, but regardless, damage has been done.
The Palestinians are determined to acquire recognition by the U.N., but if they cannot parade through the front door with pomp and circumstance, they will quietly enter through any door that will get them any closer to international recognition. The UNESCO membership acquisition was one of those back doors. There are many more the Palestinians could go through, in their attempt to strengthen their case, and don’t think for a second that they won’t!
UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The organization has many facets, and thrives to make our world a better world through the promotion and support of education, science and culture. For the last decade, it has emphasized “cultural diversity” in an effort to help radically different people groups get along and promote world peace. Conceptually, it is very hard to argue with that, and this is why the world has been giving its support to the organization.
But Pandora’s Box being opened, we can expect the imminent effects of its evil imposed on our world at any time. As a matter of fact, the first blow was given in the form of a Palestinian Youth magazine know as Zayzafouna. It recently came to the attention of a few who care enough to be watchdogs, such as the Palestinian Media Watch who passed the information to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, that the magazine’s February 2011 issue featured an article in which a ten-year-old Palestinian girl said that Hitler told her in a dream: “I killed them [the Jews] so you would all know that they are a nation who spreads destruction all over the world.” The magazine, we are told, promotes democracy and tolerance. Why is it then, that a young girl could write about Hitler being her role model?
To their credit, UNESCO quickly pulled their support away from the magazine, denouncing its hateful article.
As I see it, there might be some benefits to the Palestinian membership at UNESCO. Now that Pandora’s box has been opened and many evils have been released, it is only a matter of time before the next antisemitic deed comes from the Palestinians. This is going to force UNESCO to realize how ludicrous and how wrong their move to accept a group of people committed to the total destruction of Israel was. This is also going to force UNESCO to take sides with common sense, decency and real democracy, a far cry from what Hamas promotes. UNESCO will eventually realize their mistake, but at what cost? It would have been a lot easier and much safer to keep the fox out of the chicken coop, than to hope that the animal would not eat too many chickens before he decides to become a vegetarian.
There is nothing peaceful about Hamas, Fatah or Hizbullah. Why is the world allowing those terrorist organization to pretend that they care? Beats me! But even UNESCO, in its attempt at promoting world peace, (and many of them are definitely worth mentioning), is still falling short of real peace.
Real shalom will only come with the real Sar Shalom (Prince of Peace) and that is Yeshua (Jesus) of Nazareth, who over 2000 years ago at this season was born to die for all of us and give us hope.
Incidentally, as for Pandora’s box, the legend also tells us that when all the evils of the world were released, one item remained in the box, and that item was “hope”!
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