Former diplomat claims UN is ‘haemorrhaging with antisemitism’

Robert Wood, who recently retired after nearly 40 years in the US foreign service, including most recently as deputy ambassador to the United Nations in the Biden administration, has claimed that Washington’s next envoy to the global body will have to swim upstream to curb what he suggested is institutional Jew-hatred.

“One of the first things that the next permanent representative will need to focus on is ridding that building of antisemitism, because the entire building is haemorrhaging with it,” Wood told JNS.

The diplomat, who served in Brussels, Berlin, Mexico City and Islamabad, among others, claimed that a core reason for the US to remain engaged with the UN is that it “is going to take a very, very strong effort by the entire team in New York, with, of course, backing in Washington, to get rid of that antisemitism”.

“It’s just flowing through the veins of that organisation right now,” he went on, sating: “So you’re going to need somebody who’s going to want to fight that, be willing to do it.”

The retired diplomat also said, echoing the approach that the Department of Government Efficiency has taken under Elon Musk, that there must be “a thorough review of the entire UN system to make sure that it is getting the taxpayers’ money’s worth.”

Many think that “the UN isn’t living up to what it was supposed to be and it is just kind of a waste of taxpayer money,” he explained. But he thinks that Washington must commit to reforming the global body rather than abandoning it, after President Trump significantly cut financial commitments to the organisation and some Republicans called for the US to withdraw altogether.

Wood’s comments came as Trump is set to draw up a list of candidates for the role of UN ambassador in the coming week. He had originally nominated New York Representative Elise Stefanik to the role, but withdrew her candidacy last month in order to sure up the Republican majority in the House following a series of appointments and resignation left it unduly thin.

On Monday, Trump mentioned David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel during his first term, and Ric Grenell, who serves as the president’s special envoy for special missions, as potential front runner for the role.

“We have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office on Monday. “David Friedman, Ric Grenell and maybe 30 other people.”

Trump’s former bankruptcy lawyer, Friedman, who is now head of a nonprofit advocating for Israeli control over the West Bank, is seen as having been instrumental in the President’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognise the latter as Israel’s capital in 2018.

More recently, he hailed Trump’s plan for Washington to take over Gaza and relocate its population but also criticised his former boss for hosting antisemitic musician Kanye West at his Florida resort.

Asked specifically about the UN role when Stefanik’s nomination was withdrawn, Friedman told JNS that Trump should handle the UN like a bankruptcy case, with a one-to-two-year window for the organisation to get its house in order. Otherwise, he would tell Trump to “liquidate it.”

Grenell, meanwhile, whose current portfolio includes everything from wildfire relief to prisoner release talks, told Newsmax that he is not interested.

“This is not something that I want to do. I’ve got plenty to do,” he told the publication.

Elsewhere, another name being mentioned with respect to the envoy position is that of Ellie Cohanim.

An Iranian-born Jew and former State Department deputy special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Cohanim is a former television broadcaster and executive who has been omnipresent on television supporting Trump’s policies.

She was already vetted for Trump administration roles, a source with knowledge told JNS, adding that Trump would see her heavy presence on the campaign trail helping lead the Jewish Women for Trump group and her personal background as positives.

“I think if you’re going to make a statement with this pick, I think picking a Persian Jew whose family fled the ayatollahs, who has the bona fides from the first term to speak to antisemitism directly, to speak directly to Iran, she comes out of central casting,” the source told JNS.