No, strangely enough, I am not going to write about the farce of Durban II, or that the UN chose to give Arhmacrazyman centre stage, to denounce Israel and deny the Holocaust on the very day set aside for its rememberence. I will leave that to the other bloggers, who will do a better job than I.
Instead, I am going to give you this little snippet, from a UN spokesperson, about how the UN successfully gained the return of a UN worker who was taken hostage, in Somalia, in 1995.
In 1995, for example, the water supply for Mogadishu, the capital, was shut off by the United Nations humanitarian agencies until a hostage who worked for another aid organization was released. On the first day of the shutoff, the women who collected water from public distribution points yelled at the kidnappers; on the second day they stoned them; on the third day they shot at them; on the fourth day, the hostage was released.
The UN is holding this up as a successful negotiation, on their behalf.
Pause for a moment.
Now: what would be the response of the UN if Israel turned off the water to Gaza, in response for the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit?
The UN. Less relevant every day.