David Gerstman (Soccer Dad) e-mailed yesterday to suggest that Jeane J. Kirkpatrick’s 1989 COMMENTARY essay “How the PLO Was Legitimized” demonstrates that the use of diplomacy as another means of waging war against Israel extends back three decades. It began as a technique used by the Soviet Union to assist its clients, and it has been co-opted by the Islamists.

Kirkpatrick’s essay describes how the UN was effectively transformed from a body intended to eliminate violence in international relations to one that effectively licenses it in the name of Orwellian terms like “colonialism,” “imperialism,” and “racism.” The current effort to delegitimize a UN member in connection with its self-defense against double war crimes (firing rockets at civilians and hiding behind civilians to avoid an effective response) is part of a broader pattern that Kirkpatrick described. Her essay is worth (re)reading in connection with Peter Berkowitz’s current article.