The New York Times has a curious reference today concerning the White House’s strategy on a United Nations Security Council resolution critical of Israeli settlements:
The new White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said Thursday that he would not say whether the United States would invoke its rarely used veto power in the Council.
The United States vetoes Security Council resolutions more often than any other country. (The Soviet Union once racked up an impressive record in a short amount of time, but since 1970 or so the United States has led by a wide margin.)
Many of those vetoes concern resolutions critical of Israel–by now, this is fairly well-known, well-documented phenomenon.
Is it opposite day?
UPDATE:
Phyllis Bennis writes (AlterNet, 2/18/11):
In fact, the U.S. veto in the Security Council was consistent with a long and sordid history.As of 2009, fully half of the vetoes ever cast were to protect Israel from being held accountable in the UN for violations of international law and human rights. Another one-third were to protect racist regimes in southern Africa — South Africa and pre-independence South-West Africa — from the same accountability. Taken together, fully five out of six, or more than 80 percent of U.S. vetoes, have been cast to protect Washington’s allies accused of apartheid practices.
It is true that they use it less than they might, but that’s because U.S. THREATS of vetoes often prevent resolutions from even coming to the floor, or assure that they’re watered down to the point of meaningless before they do.
Make that “ensure”.
The US vetoed 103 resolutions from 1972 to 2002, more than 60% of them concern Israel.
Check it out.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2000.htm
ZAki, that’s because the UN sees no genocide as important, no war as urgent, no crisis as worth getting upset about; none of that matters if Israel is building houses somewhere. Our record of slapping down these stupid repeated attempts to wipe out a US ally is a proud record.
I had no idea the point of these UN Security Council resolutions was to “wipe out” an ally of the U.S. Thanks for the heads up on that haakondahl.
If you don’t like the rightist propaganda in the NY times, contact their circulation department.
circulation@nytimes.com
I just emailed the conservative who writes a column in my local newspaper. He said t he same thing as above and I had to straighten him out. Here is part of what I said:
“1) This veto will not be its first. The United States has blocked 36 resolutions criticizing Israel.
2) The settlements in the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights are already illegal as defined by the Geneva Convention. The Fourth Convention, Section 3, that I quote, states: â┚¬Ã…“Articles 47-78 impose substantial obligations on occupying powers. As well as numerous provisions for the general welfare of the inhabitants of an occupied territory, an occupier may not forcibly deport protected persons, or deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into occupied territory (Art.49).â┚¬Ã‚Â
3) Palestine does negotiate in good faith. It wants a permanent end to all settlement building and East Jerusalem as their capital. Israel and the US never agree to fully stop settlement building. Also, this idea that Jerusalem belongs only to one group of people when many inhabit this part of the Levant is downright stupid.”
remind me again,what is the u.n. good for?
oh,i remember,it is to entertain foreign delegates in n.y. and treat them to our call girls before they vote to do anything anti u.s. they can get away with.
This idea that opposing Israel when they are wrong is not happening, the stance seems to be Israel right or wrong. As in America, take it or leave it. I think that is the shamelessness of all historical administrations. If they attack the Palestiians unprovoked then they are wrong, and they ahve on occassion done just that. The conservatives love America like a 4 yr old which thnks mom can do no wrong and to criticise her means her love won’t be returned. Dumb.
Yeah I will jump ship with you lot and oppose Israel.Maybe i will go with Libia(they are part of the UN human rights council)Or Egypt.Or Iran.Or any one of a dozen other anti semitic states.Gentleman this is simple.Go back to 911.Look at pictures of the Israelis in the streets hearing the news.Shocked silence and grief.Now look at Palestinian street scenes.You would think they were celebrating a national soccer win.Yip yip yipee.!Yeah IM GONNA BE ON THAT SIDE…Cause i don’t have a friggin brain cell firing, and im a self loathing moron.You people need a course in enemy identification.When a bomb goes off and kills your children in a mall someday guaranteed it will not be an israeli citizen.And if it is an Arab guaranteed you will blame US and israel for deserving just what we got at the hands of that poor muslim.You truly are bonkers
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