Echo chamber thinking – A prerequisite for political survival
If you’ve ever wondered how certain organizations, agencies or media outlets are so one-sided in their viewpoint – whether it involves progressive Woke ideology or anti-Jewish sentiment, it is because the deck is purposely stacked against the position which is not the one they want to take.
We’ve seen it with the likes of Twitter, prior to it becoming X, whose algorithms censored many conservative tweets and also with Facebook which admittedly cooperated with political operatives who were committed to making sure that Trump did not win a second term in the 2020 U.S. elections, also censoring content which could have made a difference in the outcome.
In both of these instances, the majority of staff, who worked at these places, were in complete lockstep with their management, all dedicated to obtaining the same results.
Now, in another case of the latest echo chamber policy, where only one voice reverberates, along the same ideological considerations, the UN has fired an adviser who refused to classify the Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah as “genocide.”
It turns out that Alice Wairimu Nderitu, whose position as Special Advisor to the UN on the Prevention of Genocide was unable to please her higher-ups who expected her to define Israel’s military actions in Gaza as tantamount to genocide.
Nderitu, who wrote on the subject in 2022, had very specific guidelines to which she adhered in order to properly characterize a particular situation as genocide, and the reason she stated that this was so critical was due to “the term’s frequent misuse in referring to large-scale, grave crimes committed against particular populations; the emotive nature of the term and political sensitivity surrounding its use as well as the potential legal implications associated with a determination of genocide.”
For this woman, it was events which took place in Rwanda, Serbia, Bosnia, the Sudan and the Holocaust, which came closest to defining the actual term of genocide. Unlike those cases, apparently Nderitu did not view Israel’s defense of her citizens as something which displayed the same goals, intent or aspirations.
Once Nderitu stood by her convictions, the UN conveniently chose to allow her contract, which was set to end shortly, to expire rather than renew it. But would that have occurred had she played ball with them?
In this game of political echo chamber, where only one ideology is acceptable, because that is the narrative which is being pushed, the survival of one’s livelihood seems to be predicated on whether or not they are willing to bow to the will of their overseers who decide what position they want to advance. It means that if you are an independent thinker, you might be better served if you are self-employed or work for a company/organization or other entity which shares your ethical, moral and political sensitivities.
Nonetheless, the role of an advisor is to offer your best and most objective point of view, hopefully based on what is true and factual. Such an individual is relied upon to use sound judgment, logical reason, clear thinking and knowledge which has been verified to be accurate and trustworthy.
In this case, none of that seems to be what was desirable to those who employed Nderitu, because the moment that she could not, in all good conscience, bend or distort the definitions, which she was asked to do, it meant that she was no longer useful in her advisory role. Let’s face it, they had hoped for a rubber-stamped expert, who would be willing to lend legitimacy to the inflammatory claim of genocide which they hoped to pin on Israel for the purpose of destroying her reputation and singling her out as being worse than the greatest cases of genocide in modern times, previously mentioned.
It was only when she failed to live up to those expectations that she was cut off from her advisory capacity. Refusing to do their bidding, by giving them the ammunition to weaponize their claims against the Jewish homeland, Nderitu, instead, died on the hill of integrity, despite the UN’s convenient excuse that her contract had ended.
As a result of this incident, the Wall Street Journal wrote a scathing op-ed on the subject, claiming that, “the UN long ago lost credibility as a moral arbiter, but that its assault on Israel is hitting a new low.”
It didn’t matter that Nderitu has been characterized as “an accomplished mediator, with a recognized voice in the field of peacebuilding and violence prevention.” Nor did it matter that she has authored countless respected and impressive publications, which can be accessed on her Wikipedia page. What matters is that she served as Special Adviser to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the man who has never been caught uttering a good word on behalf of Israel but, rather, has sought to vilify and accuse them time and again.
It is this type of echo-chamber thinking which prevents the UN and its leadership from allowing other voices to be heard, because a different opinion, which fails to serve the intended agenda, is too much of a threat to accomplishing their goal of making Israel the world’s scapegoat.
Consequently, anyone who ever hopes to survive in the agency that holds itself up as the body which “maintains international peace and security for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace,” ought not to possess an opposing viewpoint on Israel, because their tenure will also be short-lived.
The very accurate assessment of the Wall Street Journal, as it relates to the lack of objectivity or moral standing of this agency, is a timely and necessary whistle-blowing of a conglomerate of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel bigots whose fondest wish is to see the demise of the Jewish people and their homeland, because, sadly, they are among those who believe that the only good Jew is a dead Jew.
It is time that nations, which claim to have any shred of moral clarity and honest dealings, come together in full recognition of the very evil and corrupt intent which has been and continues to be employed by the UN so that they can finally arrive at the conclusion that any funding which they contribute can be immediately ended.
Their political weaponization must be fought by those who care that truth always remains the guiding principle which determines good from evil.
A former Jerusalem elementary and middle-school principal who made Aliyah in 1993 and became a member of Kibbutz Reim but now lives in the center of the country with her husband. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the principles from the book of Proverbs - available on Amazon.
