JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Our woman in Turtle Bay

By Ben Harris · September 19, 2008

In the New York Sun, B'nai B'rith International's Sybil Kessler Sanchez, who runs a Jewish NGO office devoted exclusively to U.N. affairs, takes stock of the Jewish state's progress at the U.N. as a new Israeli ambassador, Gabriela Shalev, assumes her post.

Sanchez's conclusion: Israel's situation at the United Nations has improved markedly in recent years – membership in a regional grouping and a "decrease in polarizing rhetoric" under the new secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon.

But ideological battles remain as rooted in the past as the decor of the U.N.'s 38-story headquarters on First Avenue: "On the front lines of international humanitarian and human rights law, Israel must continually prove itself in the battle for political and legal legitimacy," Sanchez writes.