Last month, I gave a quick overview of media coverage of Ban Ki-moon as he reached the half-way point in his term at the UN. There’ve been positive pieces and negative ones, but the prize for least constructive criticism still goes to Jacob Heilbrunn’s FP piece on Ban as the “world’s most dangerous Korean”. That’s silly, however you view the SG. It has sparked an even sillier response from Moon Chung-in, a Korean prof:
Why is Heilbrunn targeting Secretary-General Ban? It is difficult to think of any reason, besides the fact that Heilbrunn is a well-known Jewish neoconservative. During the situation in Gaza last January, Ban was the first foreign leader to visit the scene. While denouncing Israel’s barbaric actions and expressing the position that those responsible needed to be found and punished legally, he requested an immediate unilateral cease-fire from the Israeli government. The world, and Arabs in particular, sent an unprecedented message of praise to the Secretary-General. Ban also visited the U.S. Congress in March and criticized the nation as a “deadbeat donor,” for not having submitted its 1 billion dollars in UN dues. This kind of behavior would be enough to generate objections from a neoconservative like Heilbrunn who regards the benefits of Israel as paramount and argues that the UN is useless.
This must not shake us. The people should be unstinting in their support and encouragement for Secretary-General Ban, who is working to speak for those without power and without voices to stand on their side in creating a better world.
Oh dear. This is not merely name-calling with anti-Semitic overtones. It is also wrong. As Robert Koehler – who has followed Korean reactions to Ban impressively closely – notes Heilbrunn is best known as a critic of the neocons. Ban has responded to the last month’s criticism with dignity. He doesn’t need this sort of help.
