People like Martin and Aurangzeb are the exact people this article berates. Lunitics who go who cannot hear the word Israel without grinding their teeth. Obviously the fact that the above posters don't even accept Israel as a legitimate entitiy speaks a lot

Obviously Israel is far from perfect but does not compare with Libya, Sudan, or Iran all of which have merited far less resolutions from the HRC. Which happens to be the point of the article: the Arab bloc in the U.N. seems far less interested in criticizing fellow countries than others.

The Arab nations may have issues with human rights and freedom, and certainly in the case of Libya, a gross mistreatment of their own people. In contrast, Israel is kind to its own kin, so kind that it releases its overwhelming military might to oppress innocent civilians to ensure the benefits of its own development.
Who's worse? I'm not sure.

There is a legitimate subject for an article here, so why didn't Foreign Policy commission one from a legitimate expert? This writer is simply using it as an opportunity to bolster the evil regime that he represents.

Bush followed a policy of arrogant unilateralism and defiance in face of the world. What that earned him and the US? Bush became the most unpopular president in recent US history and US influence fell steadily under his watch. Netanyahu is also following a policy of arrogant defiance in face of the world. What that will have earned him and Israel, nobody knows yet. But trend indicates it will not look pretty - for Israel. Ayalon's period as a member of the Israeli Foreign Ministry coincides with the unraveling of Israel's diplomacy. Turkey has become a quietly hostile power, Iran extends her influence over Israel's neighbors, pro-West Arab regimes are being replaced by something else, countries in the "US backyard" fall all over each other to recognize Palestine as an independent state, Russia's Medvedev visits Palestine, but not Israel, just to clarify that the Soviet Union's recognition is still in force, and Europe is indicating it may soon follow a similar path. Meanwhile cartoonish buffoons such as Ayalon and Lieberman are kept in their jobs as Israel's international face. Palestinians should be thanking heavens for these times.

...is the same as middle guy on a picture.

This seems a bit like if FP commissioned David Duke to write about how Mugabe is a a total douchebag. On the one hand, he would be totally right. On the other hand, he's still David fucking Duke. And, in any case, the issue is so obvious to anyone whose head currently resides outside of their gastrointestinal system that there would be no point in running an article about it.

Seriously, why does this article exist? Fucking Vodkastani weeaboos.

... you've joined the rest of us in the Middle East. You've set your standards so low, regarding states like Libya and Saudi as a legitimate standard against which to compare your own human rights record!

There's a reason Arabs across the region are revolting: the youth are seeking betterment and want to take back their countries, much to the dismay of Israel which has voiced its support to autocratic regimes (maybe, soon, you'll have one of your own too.... I hear Mubarak is looking for a job), comfortable with a status quo that has left it isolated and its neighbors economically and socially weak.

Inevitably, if this attitude persists, Israel will have the precursory failed government and stagnant economy that will allow it to join the Arab League where it can truly debate the merit of HRW's reports, and be lauded for pointless improvements in its abysmal record.

But pointing out the human rights violations of other states still does not excuse the human rights violations of your state. While I do agree that it is hypocritical and wrong for a 'human rights' council to have some of the worst violators sitting on it, it is hypocritical in the same way that some nations call for 'peace' while stealing land, bombing their neighbors and hiding nuclear stockpiles...........................

Not sure which is more of a "sick joke," Danny Ayalon publishing an article about Human Rights violators or the editors of FP allowing it to be on their site?!

I mean, we have always known that editors of this cite such as David Kenner and Blake Hounshell have been staunch defenders and allies of Israel, which has always undermined the legitimacy of this cite, but to have them post such an article is embarrassing.

Instead of addressing their abysmal human rights record –being one of 2 major countries that occupy other people land, second being us –Ayalon justifies, and indeed takes pride in, this record by stating that it is coming from the UN Human Rights Council.

Shame on you FP! We can understand defending Israel, but to allow it to defend its atrocities and daily killing and humiliating of Palestinians is taking it to a new level.

This site needs its own ‘Liberty Square’ to liberate it from the likes of Kenner and Hounshell!!

Yes, Israeli government > Libyan government. Clearly.

I'll just note that your "free" country is free for, in declining order:

1) European Jews
2) Other Jews
3) Non-Jews
4) Non-Jew Arabs
5) Muslims
6) Palestinians

As a generally pro-Israel American, I'm completely sick and tired of Israeli equivocation on human rights issues. Israel is profoundly intrasigent and is not a good-faith player at any negotiating table dealing with Palestinian issues.

Now would be an excellent time to announce efforts to establish a "stage one" Palestine (leaving disputed lands and issues for later negotiation) coupled with economic and infrastructure partnership to help support the development of Palestine into a modern economy. Yes, that means Hamas representation in Palestine's democratic leadership.

We know Israel is sick of being picked on. *I* am sick of Israel being picked on. But I'm sure you know the old line about doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result...

Now is the time for Israel to act, and to do so in its own strong commitment to self-preservation. If it doesn't, it will soon be surrounded by restive democracies instead of impotent saber-rattlers, and Israel will no longer have the questionable moral high ground you so clearly cling to in your article.

(I was in Israel for 5 weeks in 2006 when the Hezbollah rocket attacks began. I have a great love and admiration for the Israeli people, and made a lot of friends there. I was impressed by the sense of community there, by the kindness of the Israeli people. They deserve much better than the repugnant policy Israel holds towards Arabs generally and Palestinians specifically.)

The UN is a flaming joke. Anyone who has been watching it and how it works for the last 20 years (at LEAST), realizes this. It's great for feeding kids, but not so great it forming any kind of coherent law, policy, or action. This is just another great example of why countries like the US simply don t give a flying F' about what the UN has to say.

No country with a human rights abuse record within the last 20 years should be allowed on such a council. So that means that Libya, Israel, and yes, the US dont belong there, and shouldnt belong there for quite some time. End of story.

The author of this article is committing two logical flows which just underline the key problems in Pro-Israeli position.

Do we agree that U.N. Human Rights Counsil is run very poorly and may need serious revision going forward. Well, duh. Qaddafi was on it. Are "not so democratic" overrepresented there and may not pick up some human rights violations on their part? Yes, it appears so. Does it mean that the criticism of Israel is not legitimate because it comes from imperfect source? NOT AT ALL. This is a classic logic flaw. The fact that information was presented by somebody biased does not make that information inherently false. The author "cleverly" makes a logic leap that because U.N. sucks, too many Arabic countries are on it, therefore, every statement issued by this organization in regards to Israel is untrue and shouldn't be followed. However, he omitted to show how U.N. resolutions about Israel are wrong, bad, or unjust.

In case you guys didnt realize this article is not really throwing away Israels human rights "abuse" but rather it is bringing up the point that the HRC goes after Israel more then any other country. This is a valid point. end of story. period. the end.
The fact of the matter is that the UN DOES in fact condemn Israel far too frequently in relation to the people that are on the council itself, as well as others in the world.
Yes, you can criticize Israel. but be open minded to criticize others as well. Yes, Israel does not always treat the Palestinians the best, but in relation to Libya, Iran, Lebanese treatement of the Palestinians, Saudi Arabias, Pakistan and Yemen, they should at least be condemned as well.
THats it.

So what's new? The U.N. has been a corrupt and largely useless organization for decades. The corrupt regimes of the world have learned to play the game their and the absurdity is becoming clear to all. Even the corrupt regimes don't really respect the U.N. they just use it as a platform to protect their corruption, or spread it! The only person that seems to take the U.N. seriously is Obama. I suppose it gives him a reason to do nothing!

What else do you expect the foreign minister of Israel to write about?

It does make you wonder about FP though. Do mouthpieces of other governments have a chance to voice their opinions on FP?

Ayalon is often defended by "right wing" friends here in Israel. But the truth is that he's part of the system that never asserts Israel's historical and LEGAL rights to the land defined by the 1922 Partition.

Instead, Ayalon and his fellow travelers have internalized the false historical claims of the "Palestinians" and gone out of their way to implement the "stages" plan conceived by the Mufti of Jerusalem and carried on with fanatical devotion even to this day. Carried on with the help of the likes of Ayalon, Peres, Beinish, Netanyahu, Barak, Olmert, Livni, and (surprise surprise) Shas.

When Mubarak was coming under attack, many of Israel's leaders rushed to defend him. They did this because they share Mubarak's core values. This fact is shocking to those who depend only on mainstream news for their information.

Until Israel has leaders with the moral courage to deal with facts and reality, we will continue being sliced up like salami by Hamor Mazen & Company.

Those who are still capable of thinking objectively will benefit from a careful study of Shmuel Katz' work. http://www.shmuelkatz.com/ViewAllArticlesAtOnce.aspx

It wouldn't hurt to also study the legal basis of Israel's rights, which can be done in short order by making use of this resource: http://www.mythsandfacts.org/conflict.asp

At some point, surely, even Foreign Policy blog is going to question the "Right of Reply" concept for representatives of fascist states.

This guy, a paid official from an officially constitutionally racist state, is given the right to put his point of view.

This is a representative, I remind you, of Israel.

Israel is the state that says that people born within Israel, who during the Palestine civil war were displaced into Gaza, West Bank, Syria or Lebanon, have no right solely because of their race & religion, to actually live in Isarel and exercise their rights as Israelis.

This is the state that is to anti-Western in its conception and foundations, that it would say that it is actually illegal for two human beings to marry if their fathers were of a different religion.

That's correct. This is a representative of a state based on an ideology conceived in 19th century eastern and central Europe so utterly racist and insular in its focus, that it has been wiped off the face of the European continent since 1945 - but still survives in a tiny part of poor Palestine.

JGARBUZ says clearly knows nothing about south west Asia.

Lebanon, currently with its 18th democratically elected Parliament since 1927, it clearly the state in the Middle East with the earliest experience of "one person one vote".

Israel - which refuses after 62 years of race-based violence to allow those Israelis of Christian and Muslim origin expelled to Gaza, Syria, West Bank, Jordan & Lebanon, to actually vote - even once - has yet to join the world of liberal parliamentary democracy.

Maybe in another 100 years Israel will become a parliamentary democracy. But my guess would be it will be the very last state in the region to join the march of progress.

The author is absolutely correct that the Council is an embarrassment to all the the UN is supposed to represent, but he is equally incorrect that Israel is a model nation which respects and protects the rights and well being of ALL of its citizens.

Of course the author here will point out that the Human Rights Council spends much time focused Israel because the author is an Israeli and in the Israeli government, it is his job.

Israel has killed 100,000s of Palestinians. Dropping chemical weapons on Palestinians is a war crime. A Jewish judge who's daughter lives in Israel wrote a report of the facts and stated that! Its amazing how one country gets away with murder when they run another country that has veto power in the UN.

Any member having Veto power in the UN immediately makes the UN null and void. Please remember all member of the UNSC voted to condem Israel's settlement activity in East Jerusalem except for the US who has stated many times that those settlement are illegal.

"Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We the Jewish people, control America and the Americans know it."
- Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001, speaking to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.

"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them."
Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse, November 15, 1998.

Let me quote some more Israeli officials.

*"There is a huge gap between us (Jews) and our enemies? Not just in ability but in morality, culture, sanctity of life, and conscience. They are our neighbours here, but it seems as if at a distance of a few hundred meters away, there are people who do not belong to our continent, to our world, but actually belong to a different galaxy."
Israeli president Moshe Katsav. The Jerusalem Post,
May 10, 2001

*"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."
Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.

*"If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?"
David Ben Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp121.

*Ben Gurion also warned in 1948 : "We must do everything to insure they ( the Palestinians) never do return....The old will die and the young will forget."

"We have to kill all the Palestinians unless they are resigned to live here as slaves."
Chairman Heilbrun of the Committee for the Re-election of General Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, October 1983.

"We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters"
Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet. Uri Lubrani, PM Ben-Gurion's special adviser on Arab Affairs, 1960. From "The Arabs in Israel" by Sabri Jiryas.

"One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail"
-- Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994
[Source: N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1]

Always remember who writes an article and what their bias is towards.

Please, for the sake of Israel, release the West Bank, as soon as possible.

This argument draws out all too obvious critiques of the international human rights regime and fails to give tribute to the true complexity of the issue.

Especially in light of recent events it seems like a terrible affront to everything the international human rights regime (supposedly) stands for to have Libya have a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. However, this argument ignores the normative value of having all members of the international community involved in international human rights regimes. I am not trying to downplay the seriousness of the violations committed by many states who have a position on a UN human rights body, however, the alternative,
to exclude/ostracize these states from the system, is much a more dangerous alternative if the goal is truly to promote human rights. It is better to have these states engaged in the human rights debate - that way political pressure can be exerted on them to live up to their obligations. There is incredible normative value in the fact that these states see their legitimacy enhanced at a global level by being part of these human rights institutions. Also, their engagement in these institutions provides the world with at least some oversight mechanisms. States like North Korea or Burma that have been ostracized from the international human rights system commit some of the most egregious human rights violations, yet nobody even notices, and we have little political leverage to exert that will change their behaviour and protect innocent people.

It seems terrible that all sorts of authoritarian regimes have prominent places in UN human rights regimes however, this implies that "the West" has an impecable human rights regime record themselves. I would argue that it is equally outrageous to have the United States be the global role model/spokesperson for human rights and democracy given their blatant disregard for human rights throughout the "war on terror". There are human rights violations that occur in all nations of the world and we can not practically create a "violations threshold" that we will tolerate to "allow" nations to engage in the international community. The reality of human rights standards is that they will likely never be fully attained and are rather something that states should continually strive for- to exclude states from the system because they "started" their quest for human rights at a lower level than Western states (the West had an equally appalling human rights record measured by todays standards before the UN system was developed) would be an unimaginable hypocrisy. Also, it is incredibly problematic to condemn states like Cuba who have implemented human rights "differently" than the West- with an emphasis on economic and social rights as opposed to policial and civil rights. To exclude them from the system based on their ideological focus would be imperialistic and risk them rejecting the Western system of human rights entirely.

It seems to me that if Ayalon were to have his way we would live in a world (if we don't already) where the West continues to hypocritically trumpet their moral superiority and belittle and ostracize non-Western states (despite the fact that Western governments and corporations play a huge role in supporting the human rights violations that occur in these countries). Instead our goal should be the substantive enforcement of human rights throughout the world- and despite all its down falls, the Human Rights Council and the UN helps, rather than hinders this process.

Having read this material, I have learned for myself a lot of the new. Thanks
http://www.collegeboard.org/

Libya's tenure on the U. N. Human Rights Council is just the latest example of how the international system has been hijacked by the world's most repressive regimes. Really, having just read through this entire stream of comments, I feel inclined to recommend you to spend your time in a more productive fashion. Everyone posting here is convinced of the virtue of their own set of facts and numbers. I agree with you, most of the vitriolic rhetoric directed at the State of Israel stems from an underlying conviction that the Jewish people do not have a right to a sovereign state in their historical homeland. "The U. N. Human Rights Council has once again proved itself outside the evolution and progress of history dog obedience training. The people of our region deserve better -- and are hopefully slowly moving the Middle East to a better place. Let's hope the council does not continue to serve as a barrier to their hopes and expectations. Save big when you subscribe to FP. ". I hear Mubarak is looking for a job), comfortable with a status quo that has left it isolated and its neighbors economically and socially weak. Inevitably, if this attitude persists, Israel will have the precursory failed government and stagnant economy that will allow it to join the Arab League where it can truly debate the merit of HRW's reports, and be lauded for pointless improvements in its abysmal record.