In Reagan's Footsteps

Obama is now in agreement with the former President Ronald Reagan’s policies, at least as far as the UNESCO issue is concerned. Reagan turned his back on the U.N. in 1984 because it refused to dance to his tune. Reagan’s judgment: UNESCO was being used more as a political tool for member nations than for the purpose for which it had originally been designed. It was an accusation as banal as it was absurd; one might question if there has ever been a nation that joined any U.N. organization without political motivation.

The Reaganite role model for U.N. members differed in at least one aspect from Obama, who reacted to the Palestinian request not only by alienating his affection — UNESCO could probably have survived fine without that — but Obama cut off their funding as well. His rationale for doing so is no less phony than Reagan’s rationale was.

Acceptance as a full member of UNESCO is only a tiny step in the marathon to independent statehood. It is nothing more than a mini-success that fits in nicely with Obama’s vision of the peaceful Middle East that he described in his Cairo speech two years ago. Between lost majorities in Congress and fatal promises to Israel, Obama is no longer in a position to act, and he is unlikely to find much consolation in the blind loyalty being shown to him by Germany’s Chancellor Merkel.