As most followers of the news are aware, the Israelis announced plans to construct another 1,600 settlement units in the Jerusalem area. They did this in the face of Biden, who at the time was meeting with Netanyahu concerning the rebooting of the "peace process." The main purpose of the "peace process,"at least for the Israelis,is to be able to establish communities -- "facts" -- on the ground so that if they ever did finally get to some form of settlement, imposed or negotiated, the inarguable facts would severely limit what could be negotiated as far as independent, sovereign, and contiguous territory for Palestine is concerned.
United States Hypocrisy Knows No Rationale - take it to the UNBiden, Secretary of State Clinton, and President
Obama all "condemned" these statements, acting as any affronted
administration should in their pretended outrage against Israeli actions. The real message arrives with the
comments from the Quartet: the UN, the U.S., Russia, and the EU. Ban Ki-moon,
the UN secretary-general, acting as head of this group said he "urges the
government of Israel to freeze all settlement activities," adding they
"condemned"the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for
new housing units in East Jerusalem."
Ban continued emphatically, "The Quartet has sent a clear and strong message: we are strongly supporting your efforts to establish
an independent and viable Palestinian state." Later he added, "Let us be clear, all settlement activity is illegal anywhere in occupied territory and this must stop."
Others in the region however were not as fooled as
perhaps the rest of the world is, having dealt with this issue for more
than 40 years. As reported on al-Jazeera, "The Palestinian Authority will need
the UN's support in these confrontations." And that is the crux of the matter --
taking the issue to the UN.
International Law
Why does the U.S. not introduce this topic to the
Security Council at the UN? Why did Ban not do the same? Why are they all
sitting back saying the UN needs to do something when nobody is willing to take
it to the UN? The answer is really quite simple: taking the issue to the UN
Security Council would address the issue for what it is -- a crime against
international law of the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter of Rights.
If the UN Security Council dealt with the matter
and supported the "condemnation" as strongly as the (ineffective) quartet, it
would then be a matter of international law, and it would then have to be
recognized that both Israel and the U.S. are constantly in contradiction of many
international laws concerning occupation, war, and the humane treatment of
prisoners. Following the U.S. lead, with the EU and the Russians in support,
there would be unanimous approval from the Security Council for such a
condemnation and establishment of the "facts" in international law. They
obviously want to avoid this.
International war
Another factor that struck me as singularly
ignorant and arrogant is the pronouncement from U.S. General David Petraeus,
"The conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S.
favoritism for Israel. Arab anger over the Palestinian question limits the
strength and depth of U.S. partnerships with governments and peoples in the
[CENTCOM area of responsibility] AOR and weakens the legitimacy of moderate
regimes in the Arab world." Biden stepped in again, saying, "What you're doing
here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan
and Pakistan. That endangers us, and it endangers regional peace."
NO! Really? Do you think it is a perception of
Israeli favoritism, or perhaps do you think, in the deep, darker corners of your
mind, refusing to come out into the arena of awareness, that it is true, you
do favor the Israelis? And further, is it possible that, in those same
dark recesses of the arrogant U.S. mind, there lurks the thought that perhaps
what is occurring -- both the events inside Israel/Palestine and the events
occurring in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan -- is against all international
law? And who are the moderate Arab regimes? Are they the ones that refuse to do
anything except mutter a few politically correct phrases directed to the
Palestinians, while they continue to kowtow to the U.S. presence in the region
and accept all the favors that are offered the elites of these supposedly
moderate countries?
And why are you there in the first place? Biden's
ignorance and arrogance in considering that the U.S. is supporting regional
peace is nothing but "pardon the language" crap. Put it all in context. The U.S.
is interested in the oil in the region, always has been except that the British
made it there first. The U.S. has always supported Israel, maybe not without
contention and not always overtly, but the political mechanisms in the U.S. have
always been favorable to Israel. The U.S. has always wished to contain the
Soviet Union and now is doing the same with Russian interests in the region.
China becomes a new added factor, with its increasing demand and increasing
economic and military power throughout East Asia, and the U.S. is obviously
trying to limit its growth in the area.
Peace? What arrogance! What ignorance! What
culpability!
No, the U.S. is not there for peace. The U.S. is
there for war, a war to control all the elements that might hinder its access to
soon be rapidly depleting oil resources, other natural resources, and to contain
Russia and China from encroaching on "U.S." territory. It is a war of terror,
creating the very terror they presume to eliminate. The ephemeral disappearing
terrorist, creating an ongoing situation of contingencies that the U.S. then
allows itself a unilateral self-justification for invasions and encroachments on
the sovereign territory of many nations in the Middle East and Asia (and indeed
around the world).
The U.S. was quite happy to create a coup to
eliminate the democratically elected Mossadegh government of Iran and then
support the Shah of Iran when he ruled the country with the aid of his secret
police (SAVAK). The U.S. supported Saddam Hussein of Iraq until it became
necessary under pressure from the Saudi government to find a new base for its
military establishments. The U.S. was quite happy to stand by as the Israelis
captured all the remaining Palestinian territory in the 1967 war, issued no
complaints when the USS Liberty was destroyed, stood by again as they attacked
Lebanon in 2006, hoping to see a new puppet government established there, and
then stood by while the Israeli military pummeled the Gaza territory, in full
contradiction of all international law (thus making them complicit), hoping for
the elimination of those pesky Gazans who did not like living in an Israeli
ghetto or prison.
Take it to the UN
The U.S. and Israel are locked in a macabre dance.
The U.S. congress shuffles meekly along to the orchestration of the AIPAC group.
And now the U.S. is excited because the Israelis say they are going to build
some more settlement buildings. Get real. They really do not care, other than
for their own deluded "perceptions" of peace.
Take it to the UN gentlemen (and I use the term
sarcastically), and allow the world to see the truth of the situation in
relation to international law.