This week, the United States announced its decision to rejoin UNESCO, reversing the country's withdrawal from that UN agency in 2017, under President Donald Trump. It is important to remember that Trump's decision followed the precedent set by former presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama who stood against – yet in different terms – UNESCO's reiterated bias against Israel.
The United States' withdrawal from the mentioned UN agency was not an arbitrary move by the Trump-Pence Administration; rather it was a fact-based, well-rationed decision, fully anchored on US and international law. As a matter of fact, Trump just performed the final act of a display Obama had staged for him: The US funding cut following UNESCO's decision to recognize Palestine. US law left Trump with no alternative other than withdrawing from that international agency. And UNESCO made Trump's job much easier by doubling down on antisemitism and pure prejudice against Israel.
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Clearly, Biden has a different understanding and approach: The US must be fully engaged in UNESCO in order to promote multilateralism and counter the main US authoritarian foe coming from the Pacific. This reasoning is perfectly reasonable and coherent with Biden's overall foreign policy. Additionally, the Biden administration said it will always be decisive in pushing back any antisemitic attitude within UNESCO, as well as fighting against any burden specifically put on Israel. The main goal pursued by the current US administration is to set the rules on Artificial Intelligence and digital (r)evolution, promoting freedom over tyranny.
The world was told that UNESCO has made major reforms in management, budgetary oversight, and defusing the tensions between Israel and its neighbors. I fully believe in US President Biden's best judgment on analyzing the reality on the ground – however, my careful observation of the facts tells me a different story: UNESCO is still allowing blatant antisemitic propaganda and, worse than that, potentially being a perfect coverup for terrorist iranian regime's operatives from Europe to Africa.
In fact, Iran, with the help of some of its classic allies and proxies, most likely sees UNESCO programs as a platform to support destabilizing intelligence activities under the disguise of cultural events and the promotion of "world heritage."
Right within European Union borders, Iran most likely wants to use this to spread Iranian propaganda, to persecute opponents and critics of the evil Iranian ayatollah regime, execute "boycott" initiatives against supporters of Israel and the United States, to identify potential assets for the Iranian regime in politics, media, culture, and academia so that iranian regime may influence European policies.
The US, under Biden's leadership, must keep a close eye on UNESCO's management and activities, fighting against the capture of this UN agency by Islamists and authoritarian regimes. It is necessary to refute the conspiracy theories, which are already being spread by Iranian propaganda machine, stating that the US' return to UNESCO is a preparatory measure for Washington's full recognition of a Palestinian state during a possible Biden second term. This is totally baseless and could not be farthest from the truth – Biden's convictions and his long political record show that the recognition of a Palestinian state, considering all the troubles the PA is facing and Hamas' growing complicity with terrorist Iran, has never crossed his mind.
On the other hand, the US decision to rejoin UNESCO must not be perceived as a gift to the terrorist ayatollahs. Maintaining indirect negotiations with Iran in Oman, while giving a huge financial bonus to UNESCO with American taxpayers' money, with no formal assurances of pursuing the right values by that agency, might send the wrong signal to the international community (and to Putin) by the leader of the free world.
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