Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos

by Dore Gold

A United Nations insider exposes the ugly truth about the UN—including how UN organizations have been funding terrorist groups!

In the New York Times bestseller Tower of Babble , former United Nations ambassador Dore Gold blows the lid off the UN’s shocking failures to keep international peace, its corruption, its rampant anti-Americanism, and its emboldening of terrorist organizations. Citing previously unpublished documents, a brand-new chapter exclusive to this paperback edition provides the untold story of the infamous oil-for-food scandal—including the real scandal, that the UN let oil-for-food money go to fund terrorist organizations.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, International Relations, History

348 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Isidor "Dore" Gold was an American-Israeli political scientist and diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations from 1997 to 1999. He was the President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He was also an advisor to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first term in office. In May 2015, Netanyahu named him Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he held until October 2016.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was my first introduction to the author and the subject matter. I knew nothing about the UN and a search for UN books to educate myself yielded Gold's Tower of Babble. The book is obviously opinionated and biased, however it's hard to deny or defend the UN's miserable record which is what Gold bases his work on.

The UN was founded with extreme moral clarity at the close of WWII to protect human rights and prevent aggression. Their record is anything but that. Gold details failure after failure at the UN to execute their mission in the past 65 years. Rwanda, Kosovo, Kashmir, Middle East, Korean War, Iraq, Cuban missile crisis, oil for food, terrorism etc. This record of failure is mind boggling actually. Not only have they failed but they have actually acted as an enabler to the very aggression they were established to prevent in many case. They did this either by claiming neutrality and failing to take a position or electing state sponsors of terrorism (Syria) to the security council for example.

The lack of accountability is equally unthinkable...The Rwandan genocide occured in 1994 as Kofi Annan was the UN head of peace keeping operations and essentially did nothing to stop the aggression. In 1997 he was promoted to Secretary General and in 2001 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

What I learned from this book is that the nations that comprise the UN are naturally going to act in their own interest just like individuals do. I learned that the UN is the closest thing to "world government" we have seen and if this is mankind's best effort in carrying out global collective morality we should look for alternatives because its clear this format not only doesnt work but makes it worse. This book is a good case study in the failure of collectivism. In fact, I may even put this book of my "Individual vs Collective" bookshelf.

[Babak Fakhamzadeh · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author, ambassador to the UN for Israel from 1997 to 1999, penned down so much crap in the first two pages alone that I couldn't get any further. The -least- of which was his claim that George W. Bush is, in fact, the torch bearer of the original intention and vision of the United Nations. I couldn't take it.

[Amy Mcclellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The US needs to be done with the UN.

[Tomáš · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 would use it again in their Master's thesis.
Came for the sources, stayed for the well written story of UN.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gold's overall point is that the UN's efforts to remain neutral and impartial have caused it to be both ineffectual in crisis and at times worse by giving legitmacy to corrupt organizations and states. As examples he points to many recent incidents from Rwanda and Bosnia noting in each case how the UN refused to either provide or allow more force to be used to prevent further violence and often esacerbated the situation by treating the situation as a conflict among equals that the UN should mediate at best or just stay out of the way.

Gold definetly has his own view and bias, which some may disagree with, but he avoids much of the overblown rhetoric that often surrounds the UN (from everyone is corrupt to the black heilicopter crowd) to present a decent argument.

[Michael Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dore Gold describes how the United Nations has been ineffectual in deterring aggression, because instead of punishing the aggressor, it establishes a moral equivalence between aggressor and victim. It believes that it should be neutral in conflcts. His examples include the 1947-48 invasion of India's Kashmir state by Pakistan, the 1950 invasion of Tibet by China, and the 1960s Indonesian invasion of the Malaysian provinces of Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo. More recently, the United Nations did very little to stop the genocide in Rwanda, ignoring reports from General Dallaire, the commander of UN forces in Rwanda, warning that a genocide was imminent and requesting permission to stop it.

[Mitchell Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more opinionated and biased than I'd like yet one cannot, however deny the miserable record of the UN since it's inception.

Initially founded with good intentions and moral clarity just after the world caught a glimpse of mankind's ability for mass murder, the UN has failed to operate in accordance with it's charter.

The UN is the probably the closest example we have today of a world government and this text certainly lays out in clear view that such a body of power is not the utopia.

[Bryan]

What about Bush Multinationals?: This is an outing of the weakness of the UN, but what about the one world government being created by the Multinationals who are taking American's sovereignty away? This mad rush towards Globalism pushed on by the Bush Neocons, and his corportate crony insiders, should be of even more concern. Compared to them, the UN is impotent.

[Martin]

A very nice compendium of damning facts. For those unaware of the collected information, this book can be quite the eye-opender. For those who are, this book can serve as excellent reference. For those who don't care, and still think the UN holds any value to mankind, a pox on you. Gold offers something of a solution to the problem that is the UN, but honestly, it's quite grim.

[David sun · Rating 4 out of 5]

The U.N cannot be trusted.

[Schremkopf]

UN is even more disjointed than you'd imagine.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great material in a meaningful indictment of a body fundamentally opposed to liberal democracy, moral certainty and ultimately, freedom. Not particularly well-written, its still a worthwhile read.