Being 'Civilized' At the U.N.
Turtle Bay 
BY BENNY AVNI
July 18, 2005
One week after the London bombings, the United Nations proposed its idea of a response: an alliance of civilizations. The idea was hatched in that hotbed of antiterrorist activity, Prime Minister Zapatero's Spain, which earlier in the war on terror came up with the idea of departing Iraq as reaction to the Madrid bombing.
The world body has embraced the alliance concept and put some of its brightest former officials to work on it. There is no budget yet, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said last week, but the assumption is that sooner or later in will flow funding. Many governments and individuals prefer a shortcut - such as this alliance - to the gritty work of confronting terrorists.
The use and context of civilization are not new to Turtle Bay. In 1999, President Khatemi of Iran envisioned a Dialogue Among Civilizations, which the U.N. bureaucracy quickly adopted as a global initiative for the new millennium.
In January 2000, I attended one of the events celebrating Mr. Khatemi's plan for countries to engage in dialogue rather than do battle. The keynote speaker at the breakfast was an Iranian diplomat, Bagher Asadi, who was unaware that the event was sponsored by a Tel Aviv-based nongovernmental organization.
When the then-Israeli consul general, Shmuel Sisso, arrived late to the meeting, the Iranian diplomat mumbled something about a previous engagement and quickly left. Mr. Asadi thus managed to avoid an embarrassing handshake with an official of a Jewish state representing a civilization with roots at least as long and deep as Persia's, and which is much older than Shiism.
The farce should have ended there: Any regime that refuses to recognize the legitimacy of one of its adversaries while claiming to sponsor dialogues should be laughed at. But in 2000, the Iranians and other do-gooders were ready to chip in with some cash. And so the United Nations carved out office space at Turtle Bay, secretaries were hired, and desks were brought in.
Dialogue Among Civilizations - originally designed as a temporary project to coincide with the millennium - became a permanent operation headed by a former rising U.N. star, the Italian Giandomenico Pico, and established itself as yet another harmless, useless Turtle Bay agency to which nobody paid attention.
Earlier this year, Mr. Annan's longtime aide, Iqbal Riza, was nudged out of his U.N. chief of staff position. Shortly thereafter, Paul Volcker's investigators probing the oil-for-food scandal accused Mr. Riza of shredding reams of relevant documents days after all Turtle Bay workers were instructed to preserve any materials relating to the inquiry. Mr. Annan announced Mr. Riza's retirement, but proceeded to keep him on the payroll at a token $1-a-year salary. This arrangement allows the Pakistani born Mr. Riza to stay in New York - with his diplomatic immunity intact.
To earn his keep, Mr. Riza joined Mr. Pico at that obscure Civilizations office. He soon began exploring, along with Mr. Zapatero and Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, the possibility of bringing together Muslims and Christians. Last week Messrs. Riza and Pico moved into new offices and changed the name of their venture to Alliance of Civilizations. The United Nations was once again in the business of promoting peace, love, and understanding in response to suicide bombings.
Mr. Erdogan is no Khatemi. His Turkish coalition is by far the most enlightened government of those influenced by Islam. And it is not such a bad idea for the heirs of Spanish Inquisitors and Ottoman Turks to forge an alliance. Incidentally, if they are thinking of bridging the religion gap to conquer terror, they might consider including the Jews in their alliance as well.
Rather than promoting initiatives dreamed up by Tehran propagandists, however, the United Nations should demand the release of dying jailed journalist Akbar Ganji. One day after President Bush challenged him to do precisely that last week, Mr. Annan was unaware of the case. And almost a week later, U.N. officials have yet to request Mr. Ganji be set free.
Either way, this has nothing to do with the London bombers, their handlers, and the rest of those in the Islamic world who scoff at dialogues and alliances and believe Jews and Christians deserve nothing short of extinction. Battling that enemy is where funds and efforts should go, rather than to meaningless Turtle Bay programs.