[Salon] UN Vote on Humanitarian Truce

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

FM: John Whitbeck

Today, a few hours after Israel announced a major intensification of its genocidal assault against the people of Gaza and knocked out all internal and external communications in the Strip, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a Jordanian-moved resolution calling for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce in and around Gaza, the urgent provision of the fundamental necessities to sustain human life, notably including fuel, and the unconditional release of hostages.

Notwithstanding the intensifying humanitarian horrors, 14 of the 193 UN member states voted against this resolution, thereby signaling that they are opposed to any let-up in the Israeli onslaught and fully support Israel's publicly announced plans for a genocide verging on extermination and a second Nakba.

In addition to Israel and its wholly-owned subsidiary, the United States of America, the list of shame was comprised of Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga.

An explanation for the negative votes of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Nauru can be found on pages 6 and 7 of my attached essay, which was included in a book of essays published on the 20th anniversary of the Oslo Accords. (Palau's abstention this time took courage.) Secretary of State Blinken must have been particularly charming and/or persuasive during his recent visits to Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

The good news for Europe is that all but four European states either voted in favor of the resolution (France) or abstained (Germany and the UK), thereby potentially deflecting the justified disgust and hatred of most of mankind onto the United States.

One may, however, have questions regarding the 45 countries which signified their indifference or lack of interest in genocide by abstaining.

Of course, this resolution will have no practical effect. Israel is in contemptuous violation not only of numerous Security Council resolutions, which are supposed to be binding, but also of hundreds of General Assembly resolutions, which are not. No one expects it to pay any attention to this resolution. To dispel any conceivable doubt, Israel's ambassador to the UN, who called a few days ago for the resignation of the Secretary-General, has today declared that the United Nations has no legitimacy or relevance.

This resolution's sole significance is to demonstrate yet again, as did the November 2012 vote to admit the State of Palestine as a UN observer state (https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/12/07/the-world-has-spoken), the degree to which the United States is divorced and isolated from the moral and ethical conscience of mankind.

NOTE: The fact that polls show that 66% of the American people favor a ceasefire while only 4% of the members of the House of Representatives (18 members) do offers dramatic proof , if anyone were still in doubt, that the U.S. Congress is not responsive, on this or almost any other issue, to the wishes and interests of the great unwashed masses of the American people but, rather, only to the wishes and interests of those who pay for their services or threaten to finance their primary or general election opponents if they dare to step out of line.

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