There's been a growing movement urging the United States to leave the United Nations – including a petition drive – ever since the global body passed a resolution condemning Israel for building housing in areas it reclaimed in a defensive war.
The resolution asserted Jerusalem is not Israel's capital, and Israel must give East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.
Along with leaving the U.N. and cutting off funding, some have urged the U.S. to evict the global body from its New York City headquarters.
Now, a letter to the U.N, signed by all 100 U.S. senators in rare unanimity stops short of calling for the global body's ejection from American shores.
But it does insist U.N.'s behavior toward Israel must change.
"Too often, the U.N. is exploited as a vehicle for targeting Israel rather than as a forum committed to advancing the lofty goals of its founders," the letter states. "These actions have at times reinforced the broader scourge of anti-Semitism, and distracted certain U.N. entities from their original missions.
"As both the U.N.'s principal founding member and its largest contributor, the United States should insist on reform. As duly elected representatives of the American people, we take seriously our responsibility to conduct rigorous oversight of U.S. engagement at the United nations. We are deeply committed to international leadership and to advancing respect for human rights.
"But continued targeting of Israel by the U.N. Human Rights Council and other U.N. entities is unacceptable. This situation must change.
"We urge you to engage member states in a comprehensive effort to directly confront and root out this bias."
The letter, directed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, followed a statement from U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley declaring, "It is the U.N.'s anti-Israel bias that is long overdue for change."
The letter cited the U.N.'s "standing committees," which sometimes "serve no purpose other than to attack Israel and inspire the anti-Israel boycott."
They must be eliminated or reformed, the senators said.
Then there's UNESCO, which denies "Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem."
The senators also criticized the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which perpetuates "troubling anti-Israel bias and activities."
"Most troubling is the United Nations Human Rights Council. Charged with shining a light on gross human rights violations, the UNHRC – whose membership currently includes some of the world's worst human rights violator – instead devotes time to unwarranted attacks against Israel."
The letter explained, "The UNHRC even maintains a permanent time on its agenda ' 'Agenda Item VII' – to assess Israel even as numerous other countries, including some represented on the council, commit egregious human rights abuses."
The U.S. pays about $3 billion a year to the general fund and more to specific U.N. projects.
It's more than what 185 other countries pay combined.
The petition states, the U.N. "is a clear and present danger to the sovereignty and survival of the United States of America and its close ally, the Jewish state of Israel, despite being all but entirely dependent on American aid."
The United Nations has voted more times to condemn Israel than all the other nations of the world combined. It also adopts procedures and policies to override national law and advocate for abortion. It routinely appoints nations with poor records on human rights, such as Angola and Senegal, to its Security Council. And it threatens Americans' constitutional rights through its Arms Trade Treaty and even parental rights through its Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The letter was authored by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Christopher A. Coons, D-Del.
The senators said they are "united in their desire to see the United Nations improve its treatment of Israel and to eliminate anti-Semitism in all its forms."
"We are deeply committed to international leadership and to advancing respect for human rights. But continued targeting of Israel by the U.N. Human Rights Council and other U.N. entities is unacceptable."
The bipartisan demand letter comes in time for the vote on the anti-Israel UNESCO resolution on Tuesday, which also coincides with Israel's Independence Day. The clearly anti-Semitic motion – drafted by Arab states on behalf of the Palestinians – targets the Jewish state's sovereignty over its capital city and denies any Jewish connection to key holy sites in Bethlehem and Hebron.
Part of the proposed U.N. resolution reads: "Any action taken by Israel, the Occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the City of Jerusalem are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever."
A petition issued by WND urging the U.S. to cut off funds to the U.N states: "It is outrageous an organization hosted on American soil, protected by American arms, funded by American tax dollars and built upon a global order sustained by the United States seemingly spends all its time attacking America and its ally Israel. It an insult to global decency that Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, is continuously targeted with the most outrageous slander and vitriolic attack as the United Nations allows some of the worst tyrannies on the planet to sit in judgment. Finally, as an independent republic, the United States of America has a responsibility to itself and to the world to cease subsidizing an institution which has not only proven hostile to the sovereignty of the United States and the security of Israel, but which has also shown itself to be a breeding ground of anti-Semitism and support for Islamic extremism."