For myriad reasons, I’m not fond of traveling, not the least of which is that traveling in the 21st century is such a horrible shlep. Having said that, I am a very well-traveled person. That means that I’ve visited more than my share of places that UNESCO has tagged as “world heritage sites,” and every time I see that designation, my hackles go up. That’s why I was just thrilled to see that Trump has dumped UNESCO (again).
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was formed out of the wreckage of WWII to bind humankind together and prevent future world wars. The thinking was that if the world’s nations could find common ground and work together for the common good, future wars would be prevented.
Image created using ChatGPT
It was Disney’s Small World ride as global policy. And let me just say here that I love Disney’s Small World ride. I know it’s kitschy and painful for some, but I still love that 1960s hopeful aesthetic. However, a Disney ride will not override human nature, and it most certainly will not destroy communism or radical Islam.
My contact with UNESCO, as noted above, has been those darned “world heritage sites.” Any major tourist attraction has gotten this UNESCO tag. Whether it’s Westminster Abbey, at the heart of Britain since the 13th century; Notre Dame, at the heart of France since the 14th century; Masada, integrally tied to Israel since the 1st century BC...it doesn’t matter—according to UNESCO, they all belong to the world.
That’s always been my personal irritant because it’s a lie. They don’t belong to the world. They belong to the unique cultures that built them. People from other parts of the world visit them to admire the works of those creative cultures, not because the world can lay claim to them.
But Donald Trump has a much more important beef with UNESCO, and that’s the fact that, like the rest of the United Nations, it’s an anti-American, antisemitic, pro-Chinese, pro-Islamic institution that nevertheless gets the biggest chunk of its funding from America.
And let me reiterate that part about it being antisemitic, something the Wall Street Journal, to its credit, pointed out in an editorial:
For years Unesco has pushed an anti-Israel agenda that would be at home at university encampments. At an April meeting of its executive board, Unesco considered the issue of “occupied Palestine” while referring to Israel as the “occupying power.”
Unesco has been non grata with President Trump since he pulled the U.S out of the cultural agency during his first term over its recognition of the “state of Palestine.”
It tells you a great deal about the Democrat party that the Biden Administration, in 2023, rejoined UNESCO and gave it $600 million in taxpayer dollars.
But it’s not just antisemitism. UNESCO has been pushing the whole leftist panoply of anti-Western garbage, using our money to push Marxist/
The point, as with the rest of the UN, is to destroy the Western nation that funds it—that would be America. Let’s hope that three and a half years without American money kills the institution. And, if it’s not completely dead by that time, let’s hope that another Republican president gets elected and completes the job.