http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/349190_johnsonnline30.html

Last week, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council — a contradiction in terms with members such as Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia — voted 30-1, with 15 abstentions, to condemn Israel for “grave violations of the human and humanitarian rights of Palestinian civilians,” for “undermining” the peace process, “incessant and repeated Israeli military attacks,” and causing “loss of life and injuries among Palestinian civilians, including women and children.”

There was zero mention of Hamas’ continued rocket attacks on Israel — which preceded the cutoff of supplies that has caused such an uproar — or Hamas’ refusal to renounce violence against and attempted destruction of the Jewish state.

Only Canada had the chutzpah to cast that lone “no” vote. The United States, long having realized the HRC is a farce, is not a member.

Also last week, the long-awaited “Rambo” resurrection arrived.

The film opens with real images — like a monk’s bloated body floating in a marsh — of the peaceful fall protests and subsequent violent crackdown in Myanmar/Burma that has so quickly slipped from the public consciousness.

After Rambo is convinced to take a group of naive, demanding missionaries up river from Thailand, they happen upon a cabal of Burmese pirates intent on raping the woman in the group and beheading the rest of the lot. Rambo wastes the bad guys and saves everybody’s life. In return, the lead missionary lectures Rambo that it’s never, ever right to take a human life and says he’s going to report the incident to get Rambo in trouble. You’d think he worked for the U.N.

After the missionaries learn they can’t outrun the junta and will one by one be fed to wild pigs, mercenaries are hired to be taken by Rambo to rescue the church folk. Needless to say, after witnessing the depravity of the junta the mercenaries are ready to tuck tail and head home. You’d think they wore blue helmets.

Rambo intercedes with a stern, arrow-enforced reminder that this is their job, and you gotta “Live for nothing or die for something. Your call.”

Accurately reflecting that part of the world, and many other corners of the globe as well, good and evil is pretty much black-and-white. Bad guys won’t be turned by round-table negotiations, and we need to accept (which is pretty easy in “Rambo”) that evil exists in the world and deal with it accordingly. (Also see “No Country for Old Men” for reference.)

Sly Stallone says, though, that filming “Rambo” was in itself an education into where the real, heinous human rights abuses continue with little fanfare or action by U.N. panels.

“This is full-scale genocide,” Stallone said of the gore quotient before the film’s release. “I want the violence in there because it is reality. It would be a whitewashing not to show what’s over there.” Even the film crew had to dodge bullets and threats filming in the volatile environment.

So how is that Rambo gets it right and the U.N. can’t get it together?

While basically ignoring the plight of the Burmese people, the Human Rights Council prefers to play political vendettas. Gaza, after all, is not the David to Israel’s Goliath. Remember that Israel ceded Gaza and forcibly removed its settlers in 2005 to further the peace process.

But since Hamas is hell-bent on the destruction of Israel, that gesture just stoked more jihadist fervor. Efforts were still focused on bringing down Israel instead of developing Gaza; infrastructue, education, economy and everything else that makes a state successful and livable took a decided back seat. Hamas also picked war with Fatah for its willingness to negotiate with Israel, throwing Fatah members off tall buildings while instigating Gaza’s descent into lawless chaos.

Yet when Israel was forced to enact a blockade after umpteen warnings to Hamas to stop rocket attacks into the Jewish state, the HRC jumped on Israel as the baddies.

Rewind to October, when the European HRC delegation called for an investigation into abuses in Burma soon after the latest deadly crackdown. The debate over the resolution, which passed by consensus after being watered down, was depressing. India and Russia thought it was too harsh to “condemn” the murderous Burmese junta.

And speaking for the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Pakistan complained about Israel and, amazingly, wondered why the council was focusing on Burma instead.

It takes a “Rambo” flick to remind us why — and remind us to fight the real bad guys.

Bridget Johnson is a columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. Write her at bridget.johnson@dailynews.com .