November 29 is a day to mark the decision of the Second General Assembly of the United Nations to, in 1947, partition Mandatory Palestine. We noted more than a decade ago that when “news crackled over the airwaves that the vote was for partition, jubilation erupted among Jews the world over, for it presaged the creation of a Jewish state.” Six months later, David Ben-Gurion declared one. Zion was reborn with the hora and howitzers. 

The rejection by the Arabs of a partition that had been designed to comprise a Palestinian Arab state, too, has led these columns to rename Lake Success — the Long Island village where the vote took place — “Lake Failure.” The Sun, writing in 1947, noted that Arab leaders “angrily stalked from the Assembly chamber when the vote was announced” and wondered whether they could persuade the Palestinian Arabs to forsake “open warfare.”

The Palestinian Arabs’ choice — repeatedly — has been for open warfare. That was easy enough to predict for anyone who took the time to read, say, Vladimir Jabotsinky’s “Iron Wall.” More staggering has been the collusion of the United Nations itself in this war. Shockingly, the world body has called for November 29 to be the “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” That’s like rewarding an arsonist for burning down the house.

Punishing the Jewish state for accepting a decision of the UN has always seemed dislogical. Yet a vote in 1975 determined that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination,” though it is those who would deny the Jews a state who are the peddlers of prejudice. Now comes the determination of the UN’s international court of justice  that it is “plausible” that Israel committed genocide at Gaza by battling Hamas’s génocidaires. 

It appears as if the UN has never been able to forgive the Jews for accepting Resolution 181, which called for partition — or for being the victims of the horrific crimes of October 7. Now there are even calls to expel Israel from the General Assembly, the very body that called for a “proposed Jewish state” 77 years ago. Irony is perhaps in scarce supply at Turtle Bay. Secretary General Guterres vows “to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

A measure of that solidarity is Mr. Guterres’s insistence that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or Unrwa, be shielded from accountability for its crimes on October 7. The true scandal is that in the face of a mountain of evidence of widespread Unrwa complicity in the murder and kidnapping of Israelis, the UN not only stands behind it, but calls for even more support for its corrupt operations.

This history notwithstanding, the anniversary of partition is a time for satisfaction for Israel and its supporters across the globe. The embattled assembly of refugees from Auschwitz to Aleppo has become a state that is a marvel and a power. The past year has seen military triumphs and the achievement of feats rarely seen in the annals of warfare. Today, Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah are suddenly on the defense before a Jewish army. 

Israel’s international spokesman to the UN, Jonathan Harounoff, emphasizes to us that in the years since the “Palestinians rejected the UN’s partition plan and chose conflict,” Israel has “built a remarkable thriving democracy.” It was this fall at the rostrum of the General Assembly that Prime Minister Netanyahu held aloft placards with “Blessing” and “Curse” written on them.* Israel long ago made its choice and beckons others on the road to peace.  

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* The phrasing is from Deuteronomy 11:26-28.