On the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, B’nai B’rith International has commenced its annual marathon of high-level meetings with visiting world leaders in New York. Concurrently, today, a July conference led by France and Saudi Arabia will culminate in several Western governments’ fundamentally misguided “recognition” of a Palestinian state that does not currently exist and that can only come about through direct Palestinian talks and agreement with Israel.

Just days ago, the UNGA endorsed the July summit’s outcome document, ostensibly promoting a two-state solution. On the other hand, separately, the U.N. Security Council enabled the overdue “snapback” of international sanctions on Iran, and the United States rightly vetoed a draft council resolution pressuring Israel to abandon its military effort against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

This morning, B’nai B’rith met with President Santiago Peña of Paraguay and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin presented him with a special token of appreciation for his stalwart friendship with Israel—including reopening his country’s embassy in Jerusalem last year.

In its meetings with presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other senior officials, B’nai B’rith will again underscore the threat posed by illicit Iranian nuclear activity, missile production and sponsorship of terrorism. It will insist that Palestinian abandonment of violent extremism is key to peace, and that almost 50 Israeli hostages held in Gaza for nearly two years must finally be freed immediately and unconditionally. B’nai B’rith will also highlight a surge of global anti-Semitism since the Hamas-led onslaught of Oct. 7, 2023, and demand an end to singular U.N. mistreatment of the democratic Jewish state.

Pausing only for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, B’nai B’rith leaders will push back at an escalating wave of animosity and disinformation targeting Israel.

In Geneva too, during a new session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, B’nai B’rith will make multiple official interventions. It already facilitated a statement at the council in Arabic early this month by a onetime Middle Eastern Jewish refugee—testifying to a forced Jewish mass displacement from Arab and Muslim countries that surpassed the population of Palestinian refugees during the same period in the 20th century.

B’nai B’rith—distinguished by its global grassroots and record of leading Jewish engagement with the U.N. since the world body’s founding in 1945—will continue to insist that Jews’ human rights be given equal focus and weight in multilateral institutions.