Mere Rhetoric: UN Human Rights Commission Makes It Official: They Will Only Monitor, Condemn Israel

No one else - only Israel - is subjected to specific and permanent scrutiny:

The first of two measures adopted places Israel automatically on the council's agenda for debate while all other countries in the world are dealt with under an overall global subject heading. The second move calls for Israel's activities in the Palestinian territories to be permanently reviewed until it withdraws from the West Bank. "The Council focused almost exclusively on a single country - Israel - failing to address serious human rights violations in other countries such as Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Belarus, and Cuba," said US State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack... the Council aggravated problems by terminating the mandates of the UN rapporteurs on the Governments of Cuba and Belarus.

Belarus, incidentally, is such an egregious rights violator that as of tomorrow morning the EU has cut off trade privileges that it extends to developing economies. As for Burma and Zimbabwe - well, Israel is probably worse. What with rampant lawlessness and racially targeted mass killings going on in Israeli streets, right? Here's the best part:

The council, which has been in existence for only a year, replaced the Human Rights Commission, which was scrapped largely because it allowed 'abuser nations' such as Sudan and Libya to take part and repeatedly singled out Israel.

And thus does UN reform proceed apace. On the other hand, we're kind of conflicted. Maybe this is the best part:

The European Union, which played a key role in the negotiations, said ahead of the meeting that it remained to be seen how the council could perform on the basis of the agreement. "The package is certainly not ideal, but we have a basis we can work with," said Ambassador Michael Steiner of Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency.

Germany thinks that this is "a basis" for German and EU policy. Almost hard to see how those tools could announce they were dropping the boycott against Hamas on the day before Hamas went on a killing spree that cost over 100 lives.

References:
* US slams UNHRC's singling out of Israel [JPost]
* Mere Rhetoric: Decades Of Internationally Sanctioned Vicious Resentment Have Turned Inward [MR]

Previously:
* Hey UN, Shove It
* UN Sends Committed Anti-Semite Anti-Zionist To Conduct Unbiased Investigation Of Zionists
* Human Rights Organizations Untroubled By Dozens Of Israeli Secret Arrests, Planned Executions Of Terrorists