When Gaza was under a brutal attack by US made warplanes used by the Israeli government to commit collective punishment on the civilian population, Obama refused to comment. He said "we only have one President at a time". At the time he was the President-elect.
Now that he has become commander-in-chief of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen, he has spoken out through his representative on the UN Human Rights Council.
Israel and the U.S. called the Goldstone report "flawed" because it ignored Israel's right to defend its people from Palestinian rocket fire. They warned that the vote could jeopardize Middle East peace prospects.Yes the same tired argument that the blood thirsty Zionists used to justify their campaign of terror is now repeated by Obama's representative in the United Nations. The emperor has spoken. It is thumbs down for the people of Gaza.
So when it came time to vote for or against the Goldstone report, the Obama administration chose to go against the overwhelming international opinion in favor of the report.
The resolution passed 25-6, with mostly developing countries in favor and the United States and five European countries — Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Slovakia and Ukraine — opposing.And in a rare move, Britain and France (and three others) declined to vote. They could have abstained, but instead they did not vote at all. This was most certainly a concession to the pressure from Israel. This is the height of ridiculousness in terms of UN "diplomacy".
Eleven mostly European and African countries abstained, while Britain, France and three other members of the 47-nation body declined to vote. Russia and China, two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, were among those voting yes.
Here's an excellent Al-Jazeera report on the vote.
Unbelievably Douglas Griffiths, the US representative, complains that Israel was disadvantaged by "the asymmetric nature of the conflict". In this case he is using the codeword "asymmetric" to imply that the Palestinians are "terrorists". When the real "terrorists" in this situation are undeniably the Israeli armed forces using US supplied armaments against a defenseless people. Yes, this is a "asymmetric" conflict. It is stones against guided missiles.
Griffiths talks about "the difficulties [Israel] faced in fighting this kind of enemy in this environment". Again he is speaking in code and when he says "this kind of enemy" he clearly implies that the Palestinians are "terrorists". This is then used to justify the war crimes committed by Israel, because according to the doctrine of "the global war on terror" even the most barbaric behavior is justifiable. And of course Israel can quickly point out that the US could just as easily be accused of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, if the logic of the Goldstone report is accepted.
And at the same time that the US and Israel are, not so subtly, branding all Palestinians terrorists, they are talking about repercussions to the "peace process" from the vote supporting the Goldstone report. As if Israel and the US had any intention of coming to a "peace agreement" with an enemy which they have declared to be "terrorists".
Finally, here is a video to remind you of the situation at the time when Israel was assaulting Gaza and President-elect Obama was refusing to comment.
Related posts
No comments:
Post a Comment