[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 67 (Friday, May 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S5401]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RESOLUTION REGARDING ISRAELI MEMBERSHIP IN A UNITED NATIONS REGIONAL 
                                 GROUP

  Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the 
consideration of Calendar No. 373, S. Res. 188.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The bill clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 188) expressing the sense of the 
     Senate regarding Israeli membership in a United Nations 
     regional group.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the resolution?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the resolution and 
the preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid 
upon the table, and any statements relating to the resolution appear in 
the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 188) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 188

       Whereas, of the 185 member states of the United Nations, 
     only the State of Israel is ineligible to sit on the Security 
     Council, the Economic and Social Council, or any other United 
     Nations committee;
       Whereas the State of Israel was created in response to a 
     1947 General Assembly resolution and joined the United 
     Nations in 1949;
       Whereas the members of the United Nations have organized 
     themselves according to regional groups since 1946;
       Whereas eligibility for election to the rotating seats of 
     the Security Council, or other United Nations councils, 
     commissions, or committees, is only available to countries 
     belonging to a regional group;
       Whereas Israel has remained a member of the United Nations 
     despite being subjected to deliberate attacks which aimed to 
     place the legitimacy of the State of Israel in question;
       Whereas this anachronistic Cold War isolation of Israel at 
     the United Nations continues;
       Whereas barring a member of the United Nations from 
     entering a regional group is inimical to the principles under 
     which the United Nations was founded, namely, ``to develop 
     friendly relations among nations based on respect for the 
     principle of equal rights . . .''; and
       Whereas Israel is a vibrant democracy, which shares the 
     values, goals, and interests of the ``Western European and 
     Others Group'', a regional group which includes Australia, 
     Canada, New Zealand, and the United States: Now, therefore, 
     be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) it should be the policy of the United States to support 
     the State of Israel's efforts to enter an appropriate United 
     Nations regional group;
       (2) the President should instruct the Permanent 
     Representative of the United States to the United Nations to 
     carry out this policy;
       (3) the United States should--
       (A) insist that any efforts to reform the United Nations, 
     including the Security Council, also resolve this anomaly; 
     and
       (B) ensure that the principle of sovereign equality be 
     upheld without exception; and
       (4) the Secretary of State should submit a report to 
     Congress on the steps taken by the United States, the 
     Secretary General of the United Nations, and others to help 
     secure Israel's membership in an appropriate United Nations 
     regional group.

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