We say: There is little doubt that the UN General Assembly and the organization's Security Council have in fact been less than fair toward Israel. While recent years have seen an improvement in the way Israel is treated within the international organization, it is still unfairly judged by the UN, as publicly pointed out by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The UN's bias, however, does not mean that Israel has no use for the international organization. The Talmud teaches us of Rabbi Meir, who "found a pomegranate; he ate the fruit and threw away the peel. This is to teach us to differentiate between the main thing and things of secondary importance." (Tractate Hagiga, 15b).

Israel is a pragmatic state. In its dealings with the UN, it typically attempts to focus on what is of primary importance: its national security interests. Although it obviously resents the UN's bias, Israel recognizes that it can effectively harness the UN to its security interests. Israel has done so numerous times, not without success:

• In Sinai, the UN's Emergency Forces that initially observed the implementation of the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace agreement, set the stage for the US-led Multinational Force and Observers (MFO).
• In Lebanon, Israel and the US worked closely with the UN Security Council to reach a ceasefire ending the 2006 Second Lebanon War. Resolution 1701, adopted on August 11 2006, called for disarmament of Hezbollah, for withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon, for the deployment of the Lebanese Army in South Lebanon and for enhancing the presence of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). Israeli leaders have since said more than once that Resolution 1701 was a major achievement and that UNIFIL's enhanced presence was a success.
• On its border with Syria, Israel has enjoyed the close cooperation of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) since 1974, following the Yom Kippur war. This border has since been quiet.

While APN has never rushed to invite the UN to play a role in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, the UN can play a vital role as one component of Israel's peace and security strategy, whether by adopting resolutions that Israel supports or by providing the framework for peacekeeping troops to enforce its resolutions.