From the “It’s About Time” Files, a State Department spokesperson announced today that the US will be withdrawing its membership from the United Nations Economic, Social, and Cultural Organization.
UNESCO is an arm of the UN that is responsible for a number of programs including aid to economically impoverished nations and similar efforts.
But the group has become increasingly anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian in recent years — much like the UN at large — which represents a red line for the Trump administration.
That overt or thinly veiled anti-Semitism is being perpetuated by the organization without whom the state of Israel wouldn’t exist today is unacceptable.
The more important question is whether and when we should withdraw from the UN entirely.
Funding from the US (i.e. taxpayers) accounts for a disproportionately large percentage of the UN’s budget, yet we’re in near perpetual dogfights with socialist member nations from around the world who have no problem with appeasing dictators whilst peddling their socialism to the third world.
Here’s more from Washington Examiner…
The United States is withdrawing from UNESCO because of what the Trump administration said is a “continuing anti-Israel bias” from the education and science organization.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Thursday the U.S. would be pulling out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization by the end of the year.
“This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO,” Nauert said.
The State Department said it plans to “remain engaged” with the organization as a non-member.
This isn’t the first time the U.S. has pulled out of UNESCO.
Former President Ronald Reagan withdrew the U.S. from the organization in 1984, and former President George W. Bush rejoined the cultural group in 2002.
In 2011, the Obama administration cut funding to UNESCO after member states admitted Palestine as a member.
