1945: UNESCO — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — is founded. In the agency’s words, “UNESCO functions as a factory of ideas and a standard-setter to forge universal agreements on emerging ethical issues” and to promote “international co-operation among its 193 member states and six associate members in the fields of education, science, culture and communication.”
1953: Pakistan informs the Eisenhower administration that if the United States were to arm the Pakistani army, Pakistan would grant bases to the American military and contribute to defenses of the Middle East. The United States has so far refused to arm Pakistan for fear of alienating India, Pakistan’s chief rival.
1960: Rabbi Bernard Bergman, president of the Religious Zionists of America, calls on President-elect John F. Kennedy to arrange a peace conference between Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser “to effectuate a fair and honorable settlement between the Arab countries and Israel.” Bergman says Arabs would benefit from Israel’s presence if they gave up their “foolhardy and nonsensical program of bestiality, venom and rancor toward Israel,” and notes Arabs are in “desperate need of a vital social-welfare program to overcome their horrible conditions of poor health, malnutrition, illiteracy, squalor and emotional instability.” Bergman makes his appeal in a speech to 600 delegates at the opening of the National Convention of the Religious Zionists of America in Atlantic City, N.J.
1984: Libya’s official press agency announces that Col. Muammar el- Qaddafi’s “suicide squads” have killed Abdul Hamid Bakkush, the last prime minister under the Libyan monarchy overthrown by Colonel Qaddafi in 1969, because he “sold his conscience to the enemies of the Arab nation and Libyan people.” The claim is an embarrassment for Qaddafi: Bakkush is alive and well and living in Cairo, where Egyptian authorities used bogus pictures to trick Libya into the announcement. Egyptian authorities have seized four members of the Libyan assassination team. Suspects allegedly tell of plots to assassinate leaders in West Germany, France, India, Pakistan, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
