The US can no longer be an honest broker in Middle East
By CHRIS RYECART
Published: Nov 3, 2011 21:26 Updated: Nov 3, 2011 21:26
President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seem to be pinning their hopes of re-election and credibility as politicians on the simultaneous destruction of the credibility of the US as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's a dangerous and unprincipled gamble.
Firstly, their veto of the UN Security Council resolution that called for Israel to stop its expansion of illegal settlement building on the West Bank in order to give peace negotiations a chance represents a massive abuse of the UN Security Council.
Secondly, their opposition to the membership of UNESCO by the Palestinians in the face of a majority vote of 107 to 14 undermines the credibility of the US as an honest broker for peace. American decision to withhold funds to the UNESCO amounts to racial discrimination. Thirdly, their threat to veto recognition of a sovereign independent Palestinian state within the UN Security Council represents both an abuse of the role of the US as an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and equally an abuse of its membership of the UN Security Council.
It's hardly surprising that the US is now perceived as the major impediment to the formation of an independent Palestinian state within the Arab and Muslim world. The US chronic abuse of its veto in the Security Council is the result of the control of US foreign policy in the Middle East by the Christian Zionists in Congress whose belief that the Jews have the right to extend the State of Israel to the West Bank beyond their legal 1967 borders is both heretical and an affront to the beliefs of the mainline Christian churches throughout the world.
They are based on the misguided and false premise that some promises made to the Jews during the Bronze Age give the settlers, along with the government of Israel, the right to ignore and flout international law as maintained by the United Nations. This is patent nonsense.
The continued abuse of its veto in the United Nations Security Council by the US, in favor of indefinitely jeopardizing and postponing the creation of a Palestinian state, should result in the expulsion of the US from the Security Council on the grounds that the US is aiding and abetting the rogue State of Israel in undermining the validity of international law in order to justify its illegal colonization and military occupation of Palestinian lands.
If President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are truly committed to restoring Americas position and prestige in the Arab/Muslim worlds, then they should stop funding the terrorist policies of the Israeli government that are designed to sabotage the creation of a Palestinian state. By putting economic, financial, technological and diplomatic pressure on Israel to recognize and implement a viable Palestinian state, the US would honor the lives of those who died on Sept. 11 in a way that fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to do.
Failure to do so will jeopardize US security internationally while destroying the fabric of US democratic institutions, undermining even the credibility of the office of president. Failure to do so will also jeopardize the security of Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the security of the Middle East, and allow the UN Security Council to become at best an irrelevance and at worst a permanent agent of Zionist aggression, illegal colonization and occupation as well as religious fundamentalism.
Chris Ryecart is a political commentator based in Essex, England. He can be reached at: chris-ryecart@hotmail.co.uk
© 2010 Arab News
By CHRIS RYECART
Published: Nov 3, 2011 21:26 Updated: Nov 3, 2011 21:26
President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seem to be pinning their hopes of re-election and credibility as politicians on the simultaneous destruction of the credibility of the US as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's a dangerous and unprincipled gamble.
Firstly, their veto of the UN Security Council resolution that called for Israel to stop its expansion of illegal settlement building on the West Bank in order to give peace negotiations a chance represents a massive abuse of the UN Security Council.
Secondly, their opposition to the membership of UNESCO by the Palestinians in the face of a majority vote of 107 to 14 undermines the credibility of the US as an honest broker for peace. American decision to withhold funds to the UNESCO amounts to racial discrimination. Thirdly, their threat to veto recognition of a sovereign independent Palestinian state within the UN Security Council represents both an abuse of the role of the US as an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and equally an abuse of its membership of the UN Security Council.
It's hardly surprising that the US is now perceived as the major impediment to the formation of an independent Palestinian state within the Arab and Muslim world. The US chronic abuse of its veto in the Security Council is the result of the control of US foreign policy in the Middle East by the Christian Zionists in Congress whose belief that the Jews have the right to extend the State of Israel to the West Bank beyond their legal 1967 borders is both heretical and an affront to the beliefs of the mainline Christian churches throughout the world.
They are based on the misguided and false premise that some promises made to the Jews during the Bronze Age give the settlers, along with the government of Israel, the right to ignore and flout international law as maintained by the United Nations. This is patent nonsense.
The continued abuse of its veto in the United Nations Security Council by the US, in favor of indefinitely jeopardizing and postponing the creation of a Palestinian state, should result in the expulsion of the US from the Security Council on the grounds that the US is aiding and abetting the rogue State of Israel in undermining the validity of international law in order to justify its illegal colonization and military occupation of Palestinian lands.
If President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton are truly committed to restoring Americas position and prestige in the Arab/Muslim worlds, then they should stop funding the terrorist policies of the Israeli government that are designed to sabotage the creation of a Palestinian state. By putting economic, financial, technological and diplomatic pressure on Israel to recognize and implement a viable Palestinian state, the US would honor the lives of those who died on Sept. 11 in a way that fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have failed to do.
Failure to do so will jeopardize US security internationally while destroying the fabric of US democratic institutions, undermining even the credibility of the office of president. Failure to do so will also jeopardize the security of Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the security of the Middle East, and allow the UN Security Council to become at best an irrelevance and at worst a permanent agent of Zionist aggression, illegal colonization and occupation as well as religious fundamentalism.
Chris Ryecart is a political commentator based in Essex, England. He can be reached at: chris-ryecart@hotmail.co.uk
© 2010 Arab News
