UN Prepares for a New Leader

President Trump is reportedly nominating World Cup impresario Gianni Infantino to lead the United Nations. Once seen as a global ray of hope, the world body is now at best a negligent non-player. Once aspiring to the sublime, the UN has now become ridiculous. Back in 2016, when the current UN chief, Antonio Guterres, emerged as a leading candidate, he seemed like a reasonable choice. Few at Turtle Bay still think so. So why not Mr. Infantino?The UN’s byzantine method of choosing a leader is partially responsible for the organization’s downhill trajectory. The General Assembly and Bloomberg will conduct a public debate tomorrow featuring six declared candidates to replace Mr. Guterres on January 1. Any resemblance to televised debates in American politics, though, is mere coincidence. Most UN member states have little say in this process, and the wider public has none.According to the UN charter, the 15-member security council presents its preferred candidate for the General Assembly’s approval. The assembly’s 193 members are merely a rubber stamp. The council’s selection process, meanwhile, might have been designed by the Sun’s Rube Goldberg. Colored pieces of paper are thrown into a hat as Council members signal their encouragement, disencouragement, or indifference to each candidate. Several such rounds, not unlike a Vatican conclave, will start soon. Far from Turtle Bay, meanwhile, candidates are lobbying capitals of Security Council members in hopes of gaining “encouragement” in the early balloting. Declared and undeclared candidates will lobby the veto-wielding council members, Communist China, Russia, France, Britain, and America. Mostly, they will plead with the only deciders that really count: Beijing, Moscow, and Washington.Back in 2016, scuttlebutt at Turtle Bay had it that the time had come for a female secretary general. By an unwritten rule it was also Latin America’s or Eastern Europe’s turn. Latinas and former Soviet Union women lined up with their credentials. Then, at the last minute, the stars aligned for a Western European man, the former Portuguese premier, who had also served as head of a global Socialist group and UN commissioner for refugees, Mr. Guterres.The new candidate was seemingly perfect. Fluent in many languages, he was an antidote to his predecessor, Ban Ki-moon, who at his best spoke rudimentary English. Mr. Guterres, too, was polite enough to avoid offending the Russians, Communist Chinese, and Americans. Never mind his uneven record as premier, or that under his leadership, the UN agency was a non-factor during an acute crisis, as refugees fled the Mideast and Africa. Mr. Guterres’s first interview after taking the UN helm was with an Israel Radio reporter, our Benny Avni. The broadcast created a minor stir in the Arab world, as he highlighted the Jews’ ties to their ancient land, and specifically to Jerusalem. That was then. Mr. Guterres is now slandering Israel daily. So much so that Jerusalem has severed all ties with his office. Lesson: An automatic UN majority would turn any spineless official against the Jewish state. Can the next chief reverse Mr. Guterres’ mismanagement, or erase stains like a visit to Xinjiang, China, where the UN chief parroted Beijing’s talking points on the Uighurs? The atomic agency chief, Rafael Grossi of Argentina, has shown a moral spine. Yet would that doom his candidacy? Moscow would demur. Costa Rica’s Rebecca Grynspan is a Jewish woman vying to lead an organization born of the holocaust, but she is far from an Israel fan. Bet, though, that a late, viable candidate is yet to emerge, as Mr. Guterres did in 2016. Washington is reportedly floating the candidacy of Bulgaria’s Nikolay Mladenov, who currently leads the Gaza Board of Peace — and who was acceptable to Israel as UN representative in the region. Then there’s Mr. Trump’s paean to his pal, the much-maligned Mr. Infantino. It’s an improbable pick, but, hey, welcome to Turtle Bay, where anything’s possible.

UN Prepares for a New Leader

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