Petition, legislation, put U.N. in state of 'uncertainty' over future

United Nations officials concede there has been an atmosphere of "uncertainty" about their future since the global body's latest attack on the sovereignty of Israel, the lighthouse of democracy in the Middle East.

Among the developments is an online petition calling for the U.S. to halt support for the U.N. and expel its headquarters from American soil.

The petition allows Americans to protest the use of tax money to advance the far-left policies and practices of the U.N., which has voted more times to condemn Israel than all the other nations of the world combined.

Also, Congress has proposed a bill to remove the United States from the U.N. – Americans now pay more than a fifth of its entire budget – and eliminate the diplomatic immunity its officials now are granted on U.S. shores.

The concept of the petition abruptly got some heavyweight support on the Lou Dobbs Tonight program on Fox Business News Thursday.

Dobbs was interviewing David Horowitz, author of "Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America," as well as former Trump campaign economic adviser Stephen Moore.

Horowitz said, "I actually hope he [Trump] eventually pulls out of the U.N. and forms an organization that's a true democratic alliance.

"Amen. I love that idea, by the way," Moore added. "And I think we should withdraw from a lot of these international organizations – the World Trade Organization, the United Nations, the World Bank. All of these institutions have been highly anti-American over the years. And I wouldn't be surprised if Donald Trump didn't do that! He's contemptuous of things like the Paris climate change treaty, and so on. And look, who says we have to live by these rules that these politicians have established for years and years? There's a new sheriff …"

"Good for you, Steve Moore! You're a bomb-thrower, I mean, you have shed the shackles of orthodoxy! I'm so proud of you!" Dobbs said.

The petition also urges the removal of U.N. headquarters from New York City, calling for Americans to "cease all payments, and "expel it from American soil."

Sign the petition to encourage President-elect Donald J. Trump and the Republican Congress to use all available means to encourage allies of the United States and Israel to withdraw from the United Nations and withhold all funding and official recognition from that organization.

Among the reasons are the U.N.'s practice of overriding national law in its advocacy for abortion and the appointment to the Security Council of nations that abuse human rights, such as Angola and Senegal.

It threatens Americans' constitutional rights through its Arms Trade Treaty and even parental rights through its Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Joseph Farah, CEO of WND, which launched the petition, noted the case has been built quickly for the U.S. to leave the U.N., even though there has been cause for a long time.

"No one was talking about this idea, even in the aftermath of the U.N. Security Council's shameful abuse of Israel last month," the founder and editor of WND said. "Now look what has happened since we pushed the envelope.

"I think many are beginning to realize that anything is possible in the Trump epoch. The idea of pulling out of the U.N. was unthinkable under Barack Obama, under George W. Bush, under Bill Clinton, under George H.W. Bush. But it's not unthinkable anymore. That's why I am calling on everyone to get behind this effort by WND to put this issue on the table – and keep it there."

The latest developments haven't been covered by establishment media, but in a report at Nikkei, Stephane Dujarric, speaking for the U.N. secretary-general's office, admitted, "We're in a period of uncertainty."

Dujarric noted the new Trump administration's ambassador to the U.N., former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, will be on scene shortly, and there will be an attempt to "work through all these issues."

There have been reports in the last few days that Trump may be developing an executive order that could cut American funding of the U.N. by up to 40 percent.

And Sputnik News reported Dujarric was placing an emphasis on "discussions" the secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, hopes to have with Haley.

WND reported the executive orders under development in the Trump administration would cut funding and potentially withdraw the U.S. from certain treaties.

U.S. tax dollars could be cut off from U.N. groups that give full membership to the Palestinian Authority or the Palestine Liberation Organization, that fund abortion or violate sanctions against North Korea or Iran, according to the New York Times.

Any group "controlled or substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism" or carries out persecution of marginalized groups is also covered.

In addition to terminating U.S. funding of agencies meeting these criteria, the Trump order calls for "at least a 40 percent overall decrease" in financial support for international organizations.

U.S. funding currently makes up 22 percent of the U.N.'s annual operating budget and close to 30 percent of the much larger peacekeeping budget – a $3 billion hit on U.S. taxpayers. That far exceeds the combined $2.5 billion paid by China, Russia, Britain and France – the other four permanent Security Council members. Indeed, the U.S. contributes more than 185 countries combined.

A second order being developed, titled "Moratorium on New Multilateral Treaties," calls for evaluation of all current and pending treaties between the U.S. and more than one nation to identify those from which the U.S. should withdraw. Treaties "directly related to national security, extradition or international trade" are exempt from review.

Two U.N. treaties were explicitly mentioned in a White House release: the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Previously, Trump has criticized the Paris climate agreement, but since it includes trade language, it's unclear if the present order covers it.

WND reported when the proposal to withdraw America from the U.N. reached Congress that part of the momentum comes from the fact that the Obama administration deliberately chose to allow the latest Security Council Resolution against Israel.

The Obama team could have vetoed it, but refused, when the plan to condemn Israel for building housing for its citizens came up. Leftists claim the land in Israel actually belongs to a nation they call Palestine, which doesn't exist.

The bill is the American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2016, H.R. 193, sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala.

According to the congressional description, it would repeal "the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 and other specified related laws."

"The bill requires: (1) the president to terminate U.S. membership in the United Nations (U.N.), including any organ, specialized agency, commission, or other formally affiliated body; and (2) closure of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations," it explains.

"The bill prohibits: (1) the authorization of funds for the U.S. assessed or voluntary contribution to the U.N., (2) the authorization of funds for any U.S. contribution to any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (3) the expenditure of funds to support the participation of U.S. Armed Forces as part of any U.N. military or peacekeeping operation, (4) U.S. Armed Forces from serving under U.N. command, and (5) diplomatic immunity for U.N. officers or employees."

Check out the Big List of leaders calling for the U.S. to defund the United Nations.

Blogger Lance Schuttler wrote at the ZeroHedge website: "Regardless of one's beliefs or opinions on the U.N. being a front for a new world order, this bill is a direct and bold move against the elites' plans. For any nation to reclaim true sovereignty from the United Nations is setting a powerful example for the rest of the world. It sends a message that a country does not need a global government body, but instead can run itself without global oversight."

He continued, "Essentially, if the U.S. reclaimed sovereignty from the United Nations, it would be the equivalent of what Britain did by reclaiming its sovereignty from the European Union … times 10."

Rogers told AL.com: "The U.N. has attempted a number of actions which aimed to encroach on the rights granted to U.S. citizens under our Constitution. Most recently, the U.N. Security Council sided with Palestine and passed a resolution condemning Israel's settlements in Jerusalem. Attacks against one of the United States' greatest allies are just the most recent chapter in the U.N.'s dangerous agenda. I believe our involvement in the U.N. is a waste of taxpayer dollars."

At ZeroHedge, the report continued, "Perhaps the biggest revelations to come from such news would be the eventual exposure of the level of theft, deception and criminal activity done by the registered corporation known as The United Nations (yes it is a registered corporation)."

States the petition: "We further urge [President] Donald J. Trump and the Republican Congress to declare all United Nations resolutions, treaties and other explicit and implicit commitments to be no longer binding on the United States and violations of American sovereignty. … We urge President-elect Donald J. Trump and the Republican Congress to use all available means to encourage allies of the United States and Israel to withdraw from the United Nations and withhold all funding and official recognition from that organization."

There apparently is a surging number of people who agree that the U.N., at least, deserves defunding. Several would go way beyond that.

David Greenfield at FrontPage Magazine wrote: "The United Nations does only two things consistently and effectively: waste money and bash Israel. Sometimes it manages to do both at the same time."

He pointed out that for its money, the U.S. gets a U.N. email system that was "used to distribute child pornography … U.N. staff members have smuggled drugs, attacked each other with knives and pool cues, not to mention a tractor."

Greenfield also mentioned bribery cases.

Defunding is "something that we and every sane country should have done decades ago."

"If you give money to the U.N., it will end up anywhere and everywhere except where it's supposed to go. But defunding the U.N. isn't enough. There is no reason for us to remain there at all."

He finished: "We should defund and withdraw. … The billions we waste on the U.N. will go toward taking care of our people. And once we are free of the U.N., we will actually be able to promote real human rights instead of pandering to the dictators and Islamists of the United Nations."

Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer questioned why the U.N. spends "more than half its time and energy and resources and bureaucracy trying to attack the only Jewish state on the planet, a tiny little spec, while genocide, mayhem, murder and terrorism is going on all over the world."

"The U.N. is a massively corrupt and hopelessly broken institution," said Joseph Farah, founder, editor and CEO of WND. "If ever there were a time and the right opportunity to put this on the front burner of a new administration that clearly opposes the kind of globalist vision that the U.N. offers and promotes, this is it. Enough is a enough! Why are we supporting this twisted, anti-Israel rogues gallery with our tax dollars and debt? Why do we continue to permit them to operate within our country? If Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress don't seize this moment, a future administration will undoubtedly humiliate the U.S. and our allies, again, through the auspices of the United Nuisances."

The petition continues: "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."

Some of those who have called for action:

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, is drafting a bill to stop all U.S. funds to the United Nations until it rescinds the resolution. The bill also would prevent American money from assisting any foreign government that recognizes Palestine as an independent state.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas

Gohmert described the U.N. resolution as "anti-Semitic" and said the Obama administration tends to support "bullies over victims."

Israel is "the only place Muslims have complete freedom in the Middle East," he said.

Former Republican Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says the U.S. should take the billions of dollars it now gives to the United Nations and instead give it to American soldiers who served "under the U.S. flag."

"We are getting zero benefits" from the U.N., he told the Fox News Channel's Eric Bolling on "The O'Reilly Factor." "And we are getting embarrassed by the actions of the U.N.

"That's money that ought to be spent on American servicemen and servicewomen, and I hope Donald Trump make it one of the first acts of his presidency."

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, a member of the Trump transition team, said that if the new administration is unable to repeal the resolution, contributions should be cut off entirely.

John Bolton

“Personally, what I would recommend to the president-elect is once he takes office, he should say this resolution is illegitimate and the United States is going to seek to repeal it,” Bolton told Fox News. “If that fails, and that’s the most likely outcome, we should cut our contributions to the United Nations perhaps in toto until this resolution is repealed.”

Bolton also said there should be “consequences” for the 14 nations that voted in favor of the resolution.

“It’s just extremely distressing that even Great Britain didn’t abstain on this resolution, and it shows just how much difficulty there is in the United Nations to try and carry out a coherent American foreign policy,” Bolton said.

Syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer said the U.N. headquarters in New York City should be turned into condos by President-elect Donald Trump, arguing the U.N. spends its time “trying to attack the only Jewish state on the planet” and “undermining the United States and democracy."

Charles Krauthammer

“We’re paying an organization that spends half its time — more than half its time and energy and resources and bureaucracy trying to attack the only Jewish state on the planet, a tiny little spec, while genocide, mayhem, murder, terrorism is going on all over the world," he said on the Fox News Channel's "Special Report" Dec. 26.

Krauthammer said it's "an obsession that to an outside observer appears to be insane."

"Why are we doing this? And the rest of the time is spend undermining the United States and democracy and our allies around the world," he said. "It as an organization that exacerbates tensions, it does not assuage them."

Krauthammer said the U.N. was "born in hope, the end of the Second World War."

"It turned out to be a disaster. Any move to minimize our support for it, any move to get it out of the U.S. – imagine if headquarters were in Zimbabwe. The amount of weight and coverage it would get would be zero," he continued.

"I think that’s good real estate in downtown New York City, and Trump ought to find a way to put his name on it and turn it into condos.”

Harvard University Alan Dershowitz said the United States needs to “threaten to defund the United Nations.”

Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz

“There is an automatic anti-Israel bias at the U.N. Consider the following story — this happened less than a year ago — the head of the U.N. Ban Ki-moon put Saudi Arabia on a blacklist of countries that mistreat children during wartime and the head of the Saudis called Ban Ki-moon and said unless you take us off of the blacklist we will stop sending money to the U.N., and Ban Ki-moon said alright and he took them off the blacklist,” Dershowitz told “The Joe Piscopo Show.”

“So money counts at the U.N. And so what the United States should do now is threaten to defund the United Nations unless the United Nations stops showing this incredible bias against Israel.”

“Forty resolutions this year against Israel, four against the entire rest of the world at a time when Syria is imploding when Russia took over the Crimea," Dershowitz said. "So many violations of human rights are occurring in the world. Forty resolution against Israel, only four against the rest of the world. That shows you something about the bias of that U.N. building.”

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said the American taxpayer should not be forced to "bankroll an international organization that works against America’s interests around the world."

"The time is now to restore and protect American sovereignty and get out of the United Nations.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he doesn't want to pay for an organization that allows "two-bit Third World countries with no freedom to attack us and complain about the United States."

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

“There’s a lot of reasons why I don’t like the U.N., and I think I’d be happy to dissolve it.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. is pledging to propose a measure to cut U.S. funding to the United Nations unless it repeals the resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements.

"It's that important to me," Graham told CNN. "This is a road we haven't gone down before. If you can't show the American people that international organizations can be more responsible, there is going to be a break. And I am going to lead that break."

Graham pledged to work to "leave no doubt about where America stands" when it comes to the Middle East and Israel.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Congress "should end U.S. taxpayer funding for the United Nations unless and until the U.N. reverses this anti-Israel resolution, and I believe there will be considerable support in Congress, I hope in both parties, to do exactly that."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas

Cruz also tweeted: "Spoke w/ Israeli PM @netanyahu tonight to wish him Happy Chanukah & assure him of strong support in Congress. No US $ for UN until reversed."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he supports Graham's measure.

“Sen. Graham is leading on that, and I’m with him every step of the way,” he told BuzzFeed.

Former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin called for a #USexit, saying the United Nations works against American interests, and the U.S. should "get the heck out of the U.N. and get the U.N. out of the U.S."

Sarah Palin

"I think many of us have called for America to really step up and consider what it is that we are funding and supporting via the U.N., and how it works so hard really against U.S. interests, and just saying – look what the U.K. just did," said Palin, referring to the U.K.'s vote to withdraw from the European Union.

“This is such an encouraging time, where it’s not just us, but those across the pond, too, are understanding that their nation’s sovereignty and security are on the line here, with the ties that bind us to interests that really don’t further our agendas.”

Do your part to get the cartel of globalists, terrorism appeasers and Israel haters off our soil. Get the U.S. out of the U.N. and the U.N. out of the U.S. Sign the petition here! Make your voice heard! Stand up for American independence and the security of our allies!

Columnist Rich Lowry wrote that the U.N. resolution "demonstrates the U.N.’s hostility to our closest ally in the Middle East affords an opportunity to force an overdue crisis in the U.S.-U.N. relationship."

"We are the chief funder of a swollen, unaccountable U.N. apparatus that has been a gross disappointment for more than 70 years now."

David Greenfield, a fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, wrote that the United Nations "does only two things consistently and effectively: waste money and bash Israel. Sometimes it manages to do both at the same time."

He pointed out that for its money, the U.S. gets a U.N. email system that was "used to distribute child pornography." U.N. staff members, he said, "have smuggled drugs, attacked each other with knives and pool cues, not to mention a tractor."

Defunding, he said, is "something that we and every sane country should have done decades ago."

"If you give money to the U.N., it will end up anywhere and everywhere except where it's supposed to go. But defunding the U.N. isn't enough. There is no reason for us to remain there at all."

He said the "billions we waste on the U.N. will go toward taking care of our people."

"And once we are free of the U.N., we will actually be able to promote real human rights instead of pandering to the dictators and Islamists of the United Nations."

Joseph Farah, founder, editor and CEO of WND, said the U.N. is "a massively corrupt and hopelessly broken institution."

"If ever there was a time and the right opportunity to put this on the front burner of a new administration that clearly opposes the kind of globalist vision that the U.N. offers and promotes, this is it," he said.

"Enough is a enough! Why are we supporting this twisted, anti-Israel rogues gallery with our tax dollars and debt? Why do we continue to permit them to operate within our country? If Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress don't seize this moment, a future administration will undoubtedly humiliate the U.S. and our allies, again, through the auspices of the United Nuisances."

Roger L. Simon, co-founder of PJ Media, wrote the U.N. would be a good place to cut the massive federal budget.

"Donald Trump – who is seeking to spend a ton of taxpayer money on rebuilding our military and infrastructure – is undoubtedly looking for places to save. Nowhere would be better to start than that moribund center of international corruption and megaphone for tin-pot dictators, the United Nations," Simon said.

"What started out after World War II as the idealistic coming together of nations to end war ended up being one of the giant ripoffs of all time. The U.N. oil-for-food scandal during the Iraq War showed how extreme it had become," he said, referring to the kickbacks and illegal surcharges that enabled Saddam Hussein to pocket $1.8 billion at the expense of Iraqis suffering under U.N. economic sanctions.

He noted that in 2015 alone the U.N. General Assembly adopted 20 resolutions singling out Israel for criticism, issuing only three resolutions on the rest of the world combined.

Raheem Kassam, an ex-Muslim British political activist and a former chief adviser to U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage, said in a column for Breitbart.com, where he serves as London editor in chief, to "expect a resurgence of the American Sovereignty Act and an invigorated USexit movement in the next few months."

He sees the backlash to the U.N. resolution as "a chance for Donald Trump to drain the international swamp, too."

Jordan Schachtel, the national security correspondent for Conservative Review, wrote that if Congress won’t defund the U.N. in its entirety, it should, at the very least, cut "off the support of its most cancerous institutions."

He listed them as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees of the Near East, "a militantly anti-Israel organization that has embedded itself with Hamas terrorists"; the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, which passed a resolution denying Jewish and Christian claims to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem; the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose membership consists of tyrannical regimes that "use their status on the council to bury their human rights violations back home"; and the United Nations Information Centre, which "showcased its hyper-partisan ideology in late September when it tweeted out a link to a campaign calling for voters to defeat now-President-elect Donald Trump in the November elections."

David Ben Hooren, publisher of the Jewish Voice, held a rally at U.N. Plaza in New York City just after Christmas to send "a clarion call to the United States government to defund the morally bankrupt and highly tendentious United Nations."

He also called on "community leaders, elected officials across the nation and the president-elect to posit themselves in the forefront of the campaign to immediately cease payments to this world body that is purportedly predicated on maintaining the rights and dignity of all nations and the inhabitants therein but has proven itself a propaganda weapon in which to consistently denigrate and attack the one and only Jewish state."

Mark Biltz, pastor of El Shaddai Ministries, said "the United States and Israel should withdraw all funding from the United Nations, just for starters."

"The next step, if they do not overturn the resolution, would be to expel the organization from the United States. The U.N. is more like the United Nothings. And the two-state solution is more like the Final Solution and should be completely scrapped," he said.

Joel Richardson, host of "The Underground" and author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller "The Islamic Antichrist," said the hypocrisy and corruption of the U.N. is startling.

"This past year, 2016, the United Nations passed 20 resolutions that were distinctly anti-Israel," he said. "Only four resolutions against other nations were passed; one each for Syria, North Korea, Iran and Russia. This is more than a mockery of justice. The United Nations has become the de facto Palestinian branch of diplomatic jihad and propaganda."

Richardson called for total American withdrawal from the U.N. and said he hopes President Trump goes even further.

"Today, the United States pays for close to a quarter of the total budget of the U.N. Why? Not only should the United States defund the U.N., they should completely withdraw. As a person of conscience who deeply values the principles of honesty and justice, I'm praying President Trump will do what is right and kick this corrupt cartel out of New York."

Author, radio host and pastor Carl Gallups said "it is past time for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations."

"One rule shared by most successful people and nations is to never eternally invest in a concept, organization or philosophy to the extent that when that entity is drastically changed, or has become obsolete or corrupt, that you cannot pull out it," he said.

"In 1945, the United Nations was established with the main goal of maintaining international peace and security. What could go wrong with an idea like that? Well, here we are, and not only has the U.N. concept gone wrong, but it has, in the opinion of many, become corrupt to the very core."