UN Jerusalem Vote Postmortems

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)

Though symbolic only, rejection of Trump’s Jerusalem declaration by an overwhelming majority of UN member states gave his administration and Israel a black eye – two rogue states, partnering in high crimes, spurning fundamental Palestinian rights.

US strategy to get its way includes heavy-handed pressure, bullying, threats, other forms of intimidation and bribery – more sinister tactics used when these fail.

Notably 8 of the 10 largest recipients of US aid rejected Trump’s Jerusalem declaration in Thursday’s UN vote – Afghanistan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa and Tanzania.

Neocon US UN envoy Nikki Haley threatened UN member states, warning Washington won’t stand for being “disrespected.”

“The United States will remember this day,” she said. It’ll “remember” when asked to fulfill its funding obligation for the world body.

Washington provides around 22% of its budget, about 28% for peacekeeping operations – paramilitarism to exert control, usually doing more harm than good, harming ordinary people where deployed, not helping them.

Haley’s threat and Trump’s to cut off aid for countries opposing his Jerusalem declaration didn’t deter an overwhelming majority of UN member states from rejecting it – handing his administration a resounding defeat.

Sergey Lavrov said “(i)t goes without saying that at this stage we are rather alarmed over the situation around Jerusalem,” adding:

Russia’s position is clear. “We will be doing all we can with the aim to return the situation to the constructive track, which would promote the beginning of negotiations (between both sides of the conflict), and to ensure no party take unilateral steps predetermining a final settlement” – including about the status of Jerusalem.

China’s Global Times said “(t)he world pa(id) witness to historic display of US arrogance” at the UN on Thursday, adding:

“The most influential countries in the world other than the US including Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, major members of the EU, Japan and South Korea all voted in favor of the resolution. All Islamic countries voted in favor including Egypt, a major recipient of US aid.”

In a message to Christians during the Christmas holiday period, Mahmoud Abbas said “(i)t is because of (Trump’s decision) to support illegality and the blatant violations of our rights, that we will not accept the US as the mediator in the peace process, nor are we going to accept any plan from the US side.”

Separately, an unnamed senior PA official said there’s been an almost total disconnect between the Trump administration and the Palestinian people.

By email, former PLO legal advisor Francis Boyle said “vot(ing) under a special ‘United for Peace’ procedure g(ave)” the result “greater legal force,” explaining the following:

In its 1962 Certain Expenses Advisory Opinion, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) “upheld the legality of the Uniting for Peace Resolution,” Boyle adding:

“Recognition of Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem violates the US government’s own longstanding Stimson Doctrine (1932), which forbids recognition of any legal consequences as a result of the use of force.”

Separately, Boyle called Trump’s National Security Strategy a doctrine of “unlimited imperialism,” continuing what his predecessors began in the 19th century, adding:

“Trump is just another White Racist Iron Fist for Judeo-Christian US Imperialism and Capitalism, smashing…the world” – his Jerusalem declaration one of many outrageous actions.

Boyle quoted “his teacher, mentor and friend” Hans Morgenthau from his seminal book, titled “Politics Among Nations,” saying:

“The outstanding historic examples of unlimited imperialism are the expansionist policies of Alexander the Great, Rome, the Arabs in the seventh and eighth centuries, Napoleon I, and Hitler.”

“They all have in common an urge toward expansion which knows no rational limits, feeds on its own successes and, if not stopped by a superior force, will go on to the confines of the political world.”

“This urge will not be satisfied so long as there remains anywhere a possible object of domination – a politically organized group of men which by its very independence challenges the conqueror’s lust for power.”

“It is…exactly the lack of moderation, the aspiration to conquer all that lends itself to conquest, characteristic of unlimited imperialism, which in the past has been the undoing of the imperialistic policies of this kind…”

America is history’s latest imperial state, aiming for global conquest and control, wanting all nations subservient to its will, Sino/Russian unity its main challenge.

Its strategy will fail like all previous imperial powers, their hubris and arrogance undoing them.

The major difference between earlier and now is today’s super-weapons, able to end life on earth if used to achieve US goals.

Is global nuclear war inevitable? Boyle commented ominously, saying “(t)he factual circumstances surrounding the outbreaks of both the First World War and the Second World War currently hover like twin Swords of Damocles over the heads of all humanity.”

The unthinkable is ominously possible.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html