Anne Bayefsky, voice of the UN watchdog Eye on the UN, criticizes the UN for having abandoned the people of Egypt:

It is not difficult to figure out why the people of Egypt had nowhere else to go. The U.N. human rights authorities devoted their time, attention and (American taxpayer resources) to attacking Israel and enabling Egypt, while the Obama administration spent its capital claiming Jews living on any Arab-claimed land were the key obstacle to Middle East peace and stability.

The Egyptian people were abandoned by the U.N. They were left to their own devices by an Obama administration mired in pro-U.N. rhetoric and basing its judgment about the efficacy of the institution on ill-informed advisors. Today, we are all paying the price for that neglect and ignorance.

No doubt, Beyefsky's observations are true - the UN has long been obsessed with Israel to the exclusion of just about every other nation. But the UN's impotence to curtail human rights abuses in Egypt or to direct the popular uprising among would-be democrats is due as much to its general inefficiency and ideological schizophrenia than to any specific preoccupation. The UN is heavily (if not predominantly) influenced by nations and leagues adverse to democracies and supportive of the "wrong" sides in Egypt's present struggle. The best thing for Egyptian protestors is the absence of the UN's interference.