If there was anyone left on the planet who still required proof that the US and Israel are two sides of the same coin, it came on Friday. The sight of US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice defying the other 14 Security Council member countries by vetoing a resolution characterising Israeli West Bank colonies as ‘illegal’ stripped the US of any residual legitimacy as an honest broker.
I couldn’t help noticing that the only person who rushed to shake her hand following this nauseating display of blatant hypocrisy was Israel’s UN ambassador. How the White House mustered the chutzpah to flout the wishes of the entire international community, when President Barack Obama himself has condemned Jewish colony expansion as a barrier to peace, is mind-boggling.
In fact, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pulled out all the stops in an attempt to pressure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw the draft, going as far as threatening to cancel American aid to the Palestinian National Authority and warning of detrimental consequences to an already defunct peace process.
Such blackmailing tactics do nothing for Clinton’s already shaky reputation, especially coming so soon after she referred to the Mubarak regime as “stable” a few weeks ago.
When Abbas refused to roll over, the US tried to soften the resolution’s language by terming colonies “illegitimate” instead of “illegal,” which would have run counter to the way ‘illegal’ Jewish colonies were designated in previous UNSC Resolutions.
Abbas, somewhat uncharacteristically, wasn’t having any of it. It appears his doormat days are over following Al Jazeera’s Palestine Papers expose revealing Palestinian negotiators’ willingness to give up most of occupied Jerusalem and betray all but 10,000 refugees in the diaspora in return for a demilitarised, postage stamp entity.
His newfound stubbornness is also due to the revolutionary fever sweeping the region that hasn’t escaped Ramallah, where protesters gathered on Thursday asking for Fatah, Hamas and all other Palestinian factions to heal the rift.
The Palestinian leader has been bending his head to the Americans ever since he succeeded the late Yasser Arafat to the extent of feuding with Hamas on the say-so of Condoleezza Rice and stalling a vote on a UN Resolution designed to hold Israeli war criminals to account in connection with Israel’s 2008 onslaught on Gaza. And what has his kowtowing brought him? Precisely nothing!
For the first time Washington is out on a limb. One of the first countries to speak out against the US veto was Egypt, whose foreign ministry swiftly released this statement: “The veto, which contradicts the American public stance rejecting settlement [colony] policy, will lead to more damage to the United States’ credibility on the Arab side as a mediator in peace efforts.”
Likewise, Britain, France and Germany have issued a joint statement reaffirming their support for the failed resolution and calling the colonies “illegal under international law, an obstacle to peace and a threat to a two-state solution.”
Hopes that America’s first black president—who reached out to the Arab world in Cairo and promised to make every effort towards a Palestinian state—would emerge as this century’s greatest statesman have been well and truly dashed.
His minions are talking out of both sides of their mouths in an attempt to water down the veto’s impact, saying it shouldn’t imply that the US approves of colony expansion, but the bottom line is there for even the most myopic to see.
For all his highfaluting so-called moral values, Obama lacks the gumption to upset the pro-Israel lobby and its congressional lackeys prepared to sell their souls to hang onto their seats.
In case it’s escaped the attention of the US president and his advisers, the world changed when a Tunisian vegetable seller set fire to himself on December 17. Israel has never been as vulnerable or the US so inconsequential.
Even as Iranian warships were heading for the Suez Canal en route to Syria, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was threatening to invade Galilee. And on Friday, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual head, Shaikh Yousuf Al Qaradawi, called upon more than a million Egyptians gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to march to Rafah to tear down the border with Gaza and expressed his desire to lead prayers at occupied Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque.
With so much anti-US sentiment simmering throughout the Arab world over America’s propping up of useful, corrupt, authoritarian regimes, Obama’s slap in the face of Palestinians is ill-timed.
By wielding his veto, he has not only angered the street but also Arab leaderships. Arab heads of state must surely be re-evaluating their respective alliances with Washington after its faithful friend, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, was dumped on the swing of a pendulum.
As people power shapes new policies throughout the region that will have to take account of public sensitivities, Obama should be cultivating US influence, not dampening it with an unprincipled UNSC veto. In this current climate, he should be holding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s feet to the fire, not massaging his back.
The US and Israel must prove they are serious about the two-state solution soon before the horizon is sullied with clouds of war. Obama must get a handle on this new Middle Eastern paradigm for the benefit of all concerned, before this window of opportunity is irrevocably shut.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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UN veto leaves Washington exposed
Posted on February 23, 2011 by Linda S. Heard
If there was anyone left on the planet who still required proof that the US and Israel are two sides of the same coin, it came on Friday. The sight of US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice defying the other 14 Security Council member countries by vetoing a resolution characterising Israeli West Bank colonies as ‘illegal’ stripped the US of any residual legitimacy as an honest broker.
I couldn’t help noticing that the only person who rushed to shake her hand following this nauseating display of blatant hypocrisy was Israel’s UN ambassador. How the White House mustered the chutzpah to flout the wishes of the entire international community, when President Barack Obama himself has condemned Jewish colony expansion as a barrier to peace, is mind-boggling.
In fact, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pulled out all the stops in an attempt to pressure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw the draft, going as far as threatening to cancel American aid to the Palestinian National Authority and warning of detrimental consequences to an already defunct peace process.
Such blackmailing tactics do nothing for Clinton’s already shaky reputation, especially coming so soon after she referred to the Mubarak regime as “stable” a few weeks ago.
When Abbas refused to roll over, the US tried to soften the resolution’s language by terming colonies “illegitimate” instead of “illegal,” which would have run counter to the way ‘illegal’ Jewish colonies were designated in previous UNSC Resolutions.
Abbas, somewhat uncharacteristically, wasn’t having any of it. It appears his doormat days are over following Al Jazeera’s Palestine Papers expose revealing Palestinian negotiators’ willingness to give up most of occupied Jerusalem and betray all but 10,000 refugees in the diaspora in return for a demilitarised, postage stamp entity.
His newfound stubbornness is also due to the revolutionary fever sweeping the region that hasn’t escaped Ramallah, where protesters gathered on Thursday asking for Fatah, Hamas and all other Palestinian factions to heal the rift.
The Palestinian leader has been bending his head to the Americans ever since he succeeded the late Yasser Arafat to the extent of feuding with Hamas on the say-so of Condoleezza Rice and stalling a vote on a UN Resolution designed to hold Israeli war criminals to account in connection with Israel’s 2008 onslaught on Gaza. And what has his kowtowing brought him? Precisely nothing!
For the first time Washington is out on a limb. One of the first countries to speak out against the US veto was Egypt, whose foreign ministry swiftly released this statement: “The veto, which contradicts the American public stance rejecting settlement [colony] policy, will lead to more damage to the United States’ credibility on the Arab side as a mediator in peace efforts.”
Likewise, Britain, France and Germany have issued a joint statement reaffirming their support for the failed resolution and calling the colonies “illegal under international law, an obstacle to peace and a threat to a two-state solution.”
Hopes that America’s first black president—who reached out to the Arab world in Cairo and promised to make every effort towards a Palestinian state—would emerge as this century’s greatest statesman have been well and truly dashed.
His minions are talking out of both sides of their mouths in an attempt to water down the veto’s impact, saying it shouldn’t imply that the US approves of colony expansion, but the bottom line is there for even the most myopic to see.
For all his highfaluting so-called moral values, Obama lacks the gumption to upset the pro-Israel lobby and its congressional lackeys prepared to sell their souls to hang onto their seats.
In case it’s escaped the attention of the US president and his advisers, the world changed when a Tunisian vegetable seller set fire to himself on December 17. Israel has never been as vulnerable or the US so inconsequential.
Even as Iranian warships were heading for the Suez Canal en route to Syria, Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was threatening to invade Galilee. And on Friday, the Muslim Brotherhood’s spiritual head, Shaikh Yousuf Al Qaradawi, called upon more than a million Egyptians gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to march to Rafah to tear down the border with Gaza and expressed his desire to lead prayers at occupied Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque.
With so much anti-US sentiment simmering throughout the Arab world over America’s propping up of useful, corrupt, authoritarian regimes, Obama’s slap in the face of Palestinians is ill-timed.
By wielding his veto, he has not only angered the street but also Arab leaderships. Arab heads of state must surely be re-evaluating their respective alliances with Washington after its faithful friend, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, was dumped on the swing of a pendulum.
As people power shapes new policies throughout the region that will have to take account of public sensitivities, Obama should be cultivating US influence, not dampening it with an unprincipled UNSC veto. In this current climate, he should be holding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s feet to the fire, not massaging his back.
The US and Israel must prove they are serious about the two-state solution soon before the horizon is sullied with clouds of war. Obama must get a handle on this new Middle Eastern paradigm for the benefit of all concerned, before this window of opportunity is irrevocably shut.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.