Congratulating the State of Israel on chairing a United Nations committee for the first time in history, and for other purposes.

I thank my friend from New York for yielding me the time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 624, a resolution that I introduced with my good friend and fellow cochair of the Democratic Israel Working Group, Representative Gene Green.

I first want to thank my very good friend and cosponsor of this resolution, who yielded time to me Representative Ackerman, for his steadfastness not only on these issues, but of issues of critical import for foreign affairs of these United States.

I would also like to thank the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, my good friend, Representative Tom Lantos, and the ranking member of the committee and my colleague from Florida, Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for helping move this important bipartisan bill forward, and my longstanding good friend today who spoke favorably today of this measure. I thank Representative Wilson for his comments on this legislation and others, as well.

On June 19, 2007, for the first time ever in history a representative of the State of Israel was chosen to chair a United Nations committee. This resolution serves to properly mark this unique triumph for the State of Israel in our history books. The man chosen for this distinctive appointment at the United Nations is Mr. Ron Adam, the former director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry's U.N. Political Affairs Department. The committee he was chosen to chair is the Committee on Program and Coordination. This 33-U.N. member body provides an important role to the functioning of the United Nations, approving the work plan for all United Nations agencies and bodies.

Madam Speaker, since it first joined the United Nations in 1949, the democratic State of Israel has been considered a second-class nation at the United Nations, unfairly subjected to unjustified repeated one- sided attacks from other nations. To this day, Israel is still denied full representation within the United Nations and its constituent agencies and bodies. Meanwhile, other rogue and repressive regimes, in violation of United Nations human rights principles, are afforded full rights and privileges.

The United Nations should not and cannot continue to be a vehicle for unilateral attacks against Israel. Such dealings truly undermine the United Nations' credibility, integrity and effectiveness. Shamefully, anti-Semitic rhetoric and sentiment within the United Nations remains pervasive. Such statements are of grave concern to the United States and responsible nations.

I want to commend both past and present United Nations leaders for publicly recognizing and speaking out against the existence of blatant biases and injustices within the United Nations walls. Despite the targeted discrimination and unwarranted hate it faces within this international forum, Israel has consistently played an active role within the United Nations. Israel already sits on several significant committees in the United Nations, and representatives from Israel have served as deputy chairs in the United Nations numerous times.

I am hopeful that Mr. Adam's appointment to chair the CPC will help normalize Israel's bilateral and multilateral relations. I am also hopeful, as has been expressed by Representative Ackerman and Representative Wilson, that Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon of the United Nations will work to end the unfair vilification of Israel at the United Nations and to use his good offices to support Israel's bid to join the Asian regional grouping. Finally, I am hopeful that Israel will be granted membership on the Security Council for 2019 and gain full participation rights in the United Nations.

I am but one member of this institution. I know I speak for Gene, who probably is en route here, who has some other feelings by virtue of our cosponsorship of this matter. I urge this administration, as Gene Green and I have and others, to do everything it can to see Israel's ascension in the United Nations.

Israel's new appointment is the beginning of a new dawn for the nation's status within the United Nations. I congratulate the government and people of the State of Israel for this great accomplishment, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important bipartisan legislation.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 624) congratulating the State of Israel on chairing a United Nations committee for the first time in history, as amended.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution and yield myself such time as I may consume.

First, I want to thank Mr. Hastings and Mr. Green for their work on this important resolution congratulating the democratic State of Israel for achieving a significant victory in its long and tedious campaign to gain fair treatment at the U.N.

In June, an Israeli diplomat, Mr. Ron Adam, was chosen to chair a critical U.N. committee, the Committee on Policy and Coordination, which is responsible for approving the work plan for all U.N. agencies and bodies. Incredibly, in the entire history of the U.N., this is the first time an Israeli has been granted such a role.

For almost 60 years, since it became a member of the United Nations, Israel has been treated as a second-class citizen among the nations at the U.N. The greatest barrier to fair treatment for Israel has been its inability to achieve normal standing in one of the U.N.'s regional groupings. These groupings control committee assignments and leadership positions throughout the U.N. system.

Though geographically Israel should be a member of the Asia group, a cabal of anti-democratic and anti-Semitic states in that region, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has conspired to exclude Israel from its rightful membership in that group. Only recently has Israel been granted qualified membership in another U.N. group known as the Western European and Others regional group.

This new status has allowed Israel to begin to obtain U.N. leadership positions. We must build on this momentum. H. Res. 624 does so by demanding that the Western European and Others Group, with which Israel now caucuses at the U.N., remove all remaining restrictions and qualifications on Israel's status as a member of that group. The resolution also expresses support for Israel's campaign to gain a rotational seat on U.N. Security Council.

Once again, Madam Speaker, I congratulate Israel for its election to serve as Chair of the Committee on Policy and Coordination. I also urge our good friend, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to use this positive step towards further increasing normalization of Israel's status at the United Nations. We must continue to work with the U.N. Secretary General who has made pressing normalization an important goal of his tenure. The unfair treatment of Israel at the U.N. undermines the very principles the United Nations is meant to embody. The spectacle of repressive regimes conspiring to deny Israel, the only democratic state in the Middle East, normal status at the U.N. undermines the broader fight on behalf of the human rights and democracy.

Madam Speaker, I would urge all of our colleagues to support this very important resolution.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Florida, the very distinguished chairman of the Rules Committee on Legislative and Budget Process and a leader for human rights and dignity around the world, author of the resolution before us, Alcee Hastings, such time as he may consume.

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to recognize the gentlewoman from the First District of Nevada, a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee and Ways and Means Committee, Shelley Berkley, for such time as she may consume.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, urging all of our colleagues to vote for the resolution.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from the great State of New York and my good friend from the State of Florida for introducing this important resolution. For too long, dictators and despots have hijacked the United Nations in order to serve their own purposes. They cynically target Israel in order to shift attention from their own brutality, passing countless resolutions condemning Israel without uttering a word about what is going on in Burma, the Sudan or North Korea.

Madam Speaker, while we congratulate Israel today for a great achievement, I am still very worried the U.N.'s condemnations of Israel helped to stoke the fires of global anti-Semitism. For better or for worse, the world looks to the United Nations to set standards for human rights, and when instead it singles out Israel for constant recriminations, the U.N. becomes a platform for burgeoning anti- Semitism around the world and anti-Israel rhetoric. Last week I chaired the Transatlantic Legislators' Dialogue in my hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada. Among the many issues we discussed with our friends from the European Parliament was the alarming rise of global anti-Semitism. Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League briefed us on the widespread belief in the Muslim world that Israel and the Jews committed the 9/11 terrorist attack on this country. He told us about Malaysia, where there are no Jews, and yet where the president of that country blames the Jews for the economic problems in his country anyway.

In Europe, since 2000, there has been a surge of anti-Semitic incidents. Even here at home, a few misguided and uninformed people say the Jews are somehow responsible for the war in Iraq. I am extremely concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism globally, and it is not unrelated to what goes on at the United Nations. I am afraid the U.N.'s rhetoric serves as a great recruiting tool for terrorists and anti- Semites when it condemns Israel and uses old anti-Semitic canards to do it.

Madam Speaker, it is surely a step in the right direction that Israel is chairing a U.N. committee. We are right to congratulate Israel for this great achievement. It is about time. But so much more must be done as this resolution states. Today, with this resolution, we call on the United Nations to officially and publicly condemn anti-Semitic statements made at its meetings and hold United Nations member states accountable when they make such statements. We must fight back against the growing scourge of global anti-Semitism and growing anti-Israel rhetoric while we continue to fight for Israel's greater recognition at the United Nations.

I thank the gentleman from New York for his leadership on this issue, among many others.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of House Resolution 624, which congratulates the State of Israel for chairing a United Nations committee for the first time in its history. This accomplishment is long overdue. Israel, as a fully democratic and sovereign state, should be entitled to all of the privileges and opportunities of any member state of the United Nations.

Unfortunately, the anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias that pervades the United Nations has long prevented Israel from fully participating in that body. To this day, Israel remains only a temporary member of the U.N.'s Western European and Others Group and is excluded from many consultations, discussions and leadership posts within the group and the U.N. itself.

The anti-Semitic, anti-Israel attitude shown by some members of the U.N. is unacceptable. It shames the principles of the United Nations. The United Nations has slowly begun to make progress in addressing this problem in restoring Israel to its rightful place at the U.N. However, there is much to be done, and this resolution calls upon U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to resolve this disgraceful problem. Until this happens, the United Nations will not live up to its own charter where the preamble states that the U.N. was founded ``To save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and nations large and small.''

In addition, Madam Speaker, Israel's ability to finally chair a U.N. committee is a well-deserved accomplishment for Israel and a privilege and honor for a U.N. that has not done nearly enough.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague and longtime friend from the State of Florida (Mr. Hastings) for introducing this resolution, and I urge its adoption.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I urge support of the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, as a cosponsor of H. Res. 624, I rise in strong support of this bipartisan resolution and urge its adoption.

For the first time in history, the State of Israel will serve as the chair of a United Nations Committee. We congratulate Mr. Ron Adam for his appointment as Chair of the U.N. Committee on Program and Coordination and wish him much success in this historic post.

While this appointment gives us hope of reform at the United Nations, other U.N. organs continue on a path of anti-Semitism with irrational vilification of the Jewish State.

In 2006, the United Nations took 135 actions against the State of Israel for alleged violations of human rights. By contrast, the U.N. took only 69 actions against Sudan--home to a genocide in Darfur--and only 23 actions against Iran, where the government is carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign against its Baha'i minority.

In its first year of existence, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed 10 resolutions condemning Israel, while passing only one resolution condemning Sudan.

And we all remember the infamous U.N. ``Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People'' nearly 2 years ago when U.N. officials proudly displayed a map of the Middle East without the State of Israel.

For several years, I have worked with my colleagues to pressure U.N. members to end

their anti-Israel obsession. Israel's appointment to the U.N. Committee on Program and Coordination is the first fruit of our labor. But we know there is a long way to go to end anti-Semitism at the United Nations.

I want to thank my friend, Mr. Hastings, for introducing this important resolution, and Chairman Lantos and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen for their continued leadership on this issue.