Conference: The United Nations and Israel, AEI-August 4

United No More? AEI's Series on the Future of the United Nations
The United Nations and Israel

Wednesday, August 4, 2004, 10:30 a.m.–noon
Wohlstetter Conference Center, Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

Israel is the only UN member state that originated from a UN resolution, the only state that has had its right to exist questioned by another UN resolution, and the only member state that is ineligible for membership in the Security Council and other UN bodies. Only one-tenth of 1 percent of the world's population, Israel has been the subject of 40 percent of the votes in the UN General Assembly in recent years. The UN Commission on Human Rights devotes significantly more hours of debate and resolutions to Israel than to any other state.

Although the UN charter rests on the premise of the “sovereign equality” of all states, one state is treated differently at the United Nations than the others. Why is Israel so special? And how does Israel’s special treatment affect Israel itself, the Middle East, and the United Nations?

Experts will discuss this subject—one made all the more timely by the recent actions of the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly.

10:15 a.m. Registration

10:30 Panelists:

Tal Becker, Israel's Permanent Mission to the United Nations
Mark Lagon, U.S. State Department
Karen van Stegeren, Embassy of the Netherlands
(current holder of the EU presidency)
Ruth Wedgwood, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University

Moderator: Joshua Muravchik, AEI

Noon Adjournment


Please register online at www.aei.org/events. Shortly after the event occurs, a video webcast will be available on the AEI website at www.aei.org/events/eventvideo_list.asp.

For more information, please contact Kara Nichols Barrett at 202.862.5855 or knichols@aei.org.
For media inquiries, please contact Brock McCormack at BMcCormack@aei.org.