The Security Council is expected to address
the issue next week as D.C. persists to work to prevent the Palestinians from
gathering the nine votes needed for it to pass in the full council.
As the final vote is not expected to take place for more than a month, there is time for every citizen of conscience in the world to rise up and petition their Government officials demand the United Nations- and NOT America-Israel- take charge of the ongoing disaster that has wrecked havoc on the Middle East and America's image as an honest broker for justice and peace.
United Nations procedures demand that the special 15-member committee study the membership issue and report back in 35 days, but deadlines at the United Nations are frequently extended.
UN deadlines are also sometimes totally ignored as in the case of Resolutions 181 and 194, which pertain to Palestinian refugees right to return "as soon as possible" but 63 years later, the Palestinians are still waiting for their inalienable rights!
"The Palestinians call their membership application a desperate attempt to
preserve the two-state solution despite encroaching Israeli settlements, as
well as an attempt to shake up the negotiations that they feel have achieved
little after 20 years of American oversight. The question is whether trying to
bring the intractable problem back to its international roots will somehow
provide the needed jolt to get negotiations moving again." [1]
As a citizen of conscience for US House of Representatives, I have seized the
third rail- a subject that tends to be avoided because of its
controversial nature- and I know that "it's not over until the fat lady sings" and
the power of nonviolent people demanding their inalienable RIGHTS can bring any
state to its knees!
On Friday, The Daily Beast reported:
"While Obama publicly pressured Israel to make concessions to the
Palestinians over settlements, he secretly authorized significant new aid
to the Israeli military that includes the sale of 55 deep-penetrating bombs
known as bunker busters, Newsweek has learned.
"The military sale was arranged behind the scenes as Obama's demands for Israel to stop building settlements in disputed territories were fraying political relations between the two countries in public.
"The Israelis first requested the bunker busters in 2005, only to be rebuffed by the Bush administration. At the time, the Pentagon had frozen almost all U.S.-Israeli joint defense projects out of concern that Israel was transferring advanced military technology to China."Obama's security cooperation extended beyond bunker busters. According to Rep. Steve Rothman (D-NJ), who serves on the committees that fund both the U.S. military and foreign aid, Obama gave 'orders to the military to ratchet up the cooperation at every level with Israel.'" [2]
America is the worlds largest arms supplier
to Israel and under a Bush negotiated deal with Israel that Obama signed onto
during the Christmas season of 2009, we the people who pay taxes in America
will now provide another $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the next
decade!
The 22 days of Israel's attack on the people of Gaza in 2009, was enabled by US-supplied weapons and we the people of the US have been providing over $3 billion annually to Israel although Israel has consistently misused U.S. weapons in violation of America's Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts.
During the 22 days of Israeli assault on Gaza in 2009, "Washington
provided F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles, and a wide
array of munitions, including white phosphorus and DIME. The weapons required
for the Israeli assault was decided upon in June 2008, and the transfer of
1,000 bunker-buster GPS-guided Small Diameter Guided Bomb Units 39 (GBU-39)
were approved by Congress in September. The GBU 39 bombs were delivered to
Israel in November (prior to any claims of Hamas cease fire violation!) for use
in the initial air raids on Gaza. [3]
In a 71-page report released March 25, 2009, by Human Rights Watch, Israel's
repeated firing of US-made white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas
of Gaza was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes.
"Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza,"
provides eye witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus
munitions had on civilians and civilian property in Gaza.
"Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and
dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets,
apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school in Gaza
immediately after hostilities ended in January.
"Militaries officially use white phosphorus to obscure their operations on
the ground by creating thick smoke. It has also been used as an incendiary
weapon, though such use constitutes a war crime.
"In Gaza, the Israeli military didn't just use white phosphorus in open areas
as a screen for its troops," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies
researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. "It fired
white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops
weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result,
civilians needlessly suffered and died." [Ibid]
During the 22 days of attack on Gaza, the UN Security Council, Amnesty International, International Red Cross, and global voices of protest rose up and demanded a ceasefire, but both houses of Congress overwhelmingly endorsed resolutions to support a continuation of Israel's so called "self defense."
When President Franklin
D. Roosevelt met with labor leaders in 1934 for four hours, he told them "You've
convinced me that you are right. Now, go out there and FORCE ME TO DO IT."
What he meant, was that the pressures on a President to stay with the status
quo and the forces of the economic and political elites of the country are so enormous,
that even when a President wishes to move in a different direction, he needs the force of progressives passionately
pushing him in the correct direction.
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