US
- Israeli UN Resolution Hypocrisy
By Stephen Lendman
03 August, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Two
nations stand out above all others as notorious serial abusers of UN
resolutions - the US and Israel. Over the last half century, the US
has used its Security Council veto many dozens of times to prevent any
resolutions from passing condemning Israel for its abusive or hostile
actions or that were inimical to Israeli interests. It's also voted
against dozens of others overwhelmingly supported by the rest of the
world in the UN General Assembly. By its actions and with 6% of the
world's population, the US has thus arrogantly ignored the will of nearly
all the other 94% to support its client state even when Israel had committed
war crimes or crimes against humanity the rest of the world demanded
it be held to account for. In the words of one UK observer using a baseball
analogy: "Only the USA could have a World Series and not invite
the rest of the world."
The Israeli record on UN
resolutions over that same period is far worse. With full US support
for its actions, it's flagrantly and with little or no pretense routinely
ignored over five dozen UN Resolutions condemning or censuring it for
its actions against the Palestinians or other Arab people, deploring
it for committing them, or demanding, calling on or urging the Jewish
state to end them. Israel never did or intends to up to the present,
including the mass slaughter and destruction it's now inflicting on
the people of Lebanon and the Palestinians in their Territories that
Israel illegally occupies and attacks whenever it wishes. It does so
with impunity using any contrived pretext it can get away with to deny
the Palestinians any chance ever for a viable sovereign independent
state and to avoid a political solution with them it won't ever tolerate.
UN Resolutions As
Examples of US and Israeli Hypocrisy
Consider now three UN Resolutions
as examples of gross hypocrisy - one Israel and its US paymaster and
benefactor support and two others both countries do not so they ignore
them. In September, 2004, the Security Council passed UN Resolution
1559, cosponsored by the US and France, that called on Syria to withdraw
its military forces from Lebanon and stop intervening in the Lebanese
political process. It also demanded all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias
(aimed mainly at Hezbollah, of course) disarm and disband (meaning surrender).
Following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik
Hariri, in February, 2005, Syria bowed to international pressure and
complied fully with the resolution by April. In so doing, it ended its
29 year occupation of the part of the country it controlled which excluded
the rest in the South under Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) control that
Israel maintained after its invasion of Southern Lebanon in 1978 and
again in 1982. Hezbollah's military resistance wing didnot comply. Had
it done so, it would have left itself and the Shia third of the Lebanese
population dependent on it defenseless against the Israelis. The Lebanese
government and its small and weak security forces had no power to force
Hezbollah's compliance and were unable to do it.
Hezbollah was born out of
the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the oppressive occupation
that followed. It's a popular resistance movement, much like and in
the same spirit as the French Resistance freedom fighters the Nazis
called terrorists, formed to resist their illegal occupiers and expel
them. Ever since, it's continued as an effective resistance force against
the Israelis that finally withdrew from Lebanon in May, 2000 but maintained
its occupation of the 25 square kilometer area of South Lebanon known
as Shebaa Farms it never relinquished after seizing it in the 1967 war.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese people and its government demand Israel give
it back as well as cease its frequent hostile cross-border incursions,
unjustifiable abductions, repeated violations of the country's airspace
as well as end its current brutal assault and invasion of their country
once again. To continue being an effective resistance force, Hezbollah
remained armed, has every right to do so in its own self-defense whatver
resolutions the UN passes, and will continue resisting Israeli oppression
until it ends. It's now doing it against a vastly superior IDF invasion
force in South Lebanon far more effectively than the Israeli government
is willing to admit.
Now consider UN Resolutions
465 and 476. The Security Council unanimously adopted UN Resolution
465 in March, 1980 that addressed Israel's illegal occupation of the
Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and the
Syrian Golan Heights. Among other provisions in it, it condemned Israel's
policy of "setting parts of its population and new Immigrants in
those territories (and said doing so constituted) a flagrant violation
of the fourth Geneva Convention relative to the protection of civilian
persons in time of war and also constitute a serious obstruction to
achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East."
It called on the government of Israel to "dismantle the existing
settlements and in particular to cease....the establishment, construction
and planning of (new) settlements in the Arab territories since 1967,
including Jerusalem."
In the last 26 years, Israel
has flagrantly violated this resolution and still continues to build
new settlements illegally in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. The
US supports and funds the Israeli government enabling it to do it, and
the UN and world community have taken no action to bring Israel into
compliance which it could do by imposing sanctions severe enough to
force Israel to stop new settlement construction, dismantle the existing
ones and make restitution to the Palestinians and Syrians for the harm
caused them.
The Security Council also
passed Resolution 476 in June, 1980. Like Resolution 465, it, too, reaffirms
the necessity to end the Israeli occupation of Arab territories ongoing
since the 1967 war. It went on to condemn Israel for its continued refusal
to do it or to comply with the relevant Security Council and General
Assembly resolutions demanding it does. It repeated provisions detailed
in Resolution 465 and reaffirmed its determination in the event of Israeli
non-compliance to examine practical ways to get it to do so. Israel
never complied, and the UN never took action to see that it did. Also,
by its reinvasion of Lebanon now and its unending occupation of the
Shebaa Farms area it's held since 1967, Israel is also in violation
of UN resolution 425 and nine additional ones demanding the withdrawal
of its forces from South Lebanon. The net effect of UN action - many
relevant and high-sounding words and speeches amounting to nothing,
at least when it concerns Israel.
The Hypocrisy of
the US Congress
Now consider a further gross
hypocrisy. On July 20, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly
410 - 8 to unconditionally endorse Israel's illegal aggression against
the Palestinians and people of Lebanon. Earlier in the week, the US
Senate passed a similar resolution by voice vote, but added a worthless
and outrageous clause that "urges all sides to protect innocent
civilian life and infrastructure." The House version showed no
such disingenuous delicacy, and in language Orwell would love, actually
praised Israel for "minimizing civilian loss" ignoring the
obvious evidence to the contrary.
Along with its arrogance,
the Congressional resolution violated the UN Charter by unjustifiably
claiming Israel has the right of self-defense guaranteed it under Article
51 and thus has just cause to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure and kill
innocent civilians to do it. Once again, Orwell would approve. These
House and Senate resolutions are compelling evidence of both parties'
unconditional support for Israel whatever it does. They also show the
Bush administration's utter contempt for all international laws and
norms and its unconditional endorsement of Israel when it violates them
as it did so egregiously in its outrageous attack on a civilian target
in Qana on July 30 killing 60 or more innocent men, women and at least
37 children.
The Congressional resolution
also unjustifiably accused, and by implication condemned, Lebanon for
failing to observe UN Resolution 1559 by not disbanding and disarming
Hezbollah and allowing it instead to amass thousands of rockets and
other weapons. It also criticized the legitimate integration of Hezbollah
into the Lebanese government where it's represented by 11 democratically
elected lawmakers in the Parliament and two ministers in the country's
cabinet. The Congressional resolution ignores the fact that UN Resolution
1559 calls only for Hezbollah's armed militia to be disarmed and disbanded,
regardless of how unreasonable that demand is.
For Lebanon's failure to
enforce UN Resolution 1559, including provisions not even in it, the
US Congress, in effect, gave Israel its approval to destroy the country
and kill many hundreds of its people. At the same time, Israel never
complied with UN Resolutions 465 and 476 demanding it withdraw from
the Occupied Territories and Golan Heights it holds illegally, UN Resolution
425 and nine others making the same demand it remove its forces from
all Lebanese territory, and all the dozens of other UN resolutions Israel
routinely violates or disregards.
The US Congress, UN, world
leaders and most Arab states remain committed to Israel overtly or tacitly.
They've done it despite Israel's many violations including the crime
of aggression in its ongoing brutal assaults on Lebanon and the Occupied
Territories that it falsely and disingenuously claims to be a justifiable
response to the capture (not kidnapping) of three of its soldiers, a
minor provocation at most. At the same time, the Congress and world
leaders remain silent refusing to condemn Israel for its failure to
comply with UN Resolutions 465, 476, 425, nine similar ones. and all
the other UN resolutions against it for the past half century.
The message is clear. When
it comes to the UN, the US runs the show, and no substantive or significant
action can be taken with teeth unless it approves - especially when
it applies to Israel, in part, because of the power of the Israeli lobby
in the US. Also, all actions of a valued US client state are quite acceptable,
even when they violate the UN Charter and international law, so long
as they serve Washington's interests. Israel's illegal aggression in
Lebanon and the Occupied Territories clearly do. In spite of it, the
US, as de facto ruler of the world, has given the Israelis carte blanche
to run amuck and commit the supreme war crime with impunity. In the
kind of world Orwell understood, Israel's mass killing and destruction
is in the US's imperial interest, especially in the strategically important
Middle East where oil is central to all else, so its scorched-earth
policy is quite acceptable and may go on unabated and end only when
the two allies decide to stop it. It doesn't matter what the lw is or
that the innocent are paying the supreme price for its violation.
Peacekeeping Hypocrisy
A brief word about still
more hypocrisy. The US, UK and Israel have called for a robust international
military force (Israel appears to want a NATO run one) to serve as "peacekeepers"
in South Lebanon once Israel ceases its aggression and allows it to
come in. No one is considering the wishes of Hezbollah, the people of
South Lebanon it serves or the Lebanese government. Only Israel and
its US and UK allies are to be allowed to decide or whatever other countries
Israel is willing to allow in the decision-making loop. It's also undiscussed
publicly what Israel really has in mind, how oppressive the Christian
South Lebanon Army (SLA) was when it acted as Israel's occupying enforcer
after 1978 or how ineffective the current UN Interim Force in Lebanon
(UNIFIL) has been since it was first put in place in 1978 and never
succeeded in establishing peace or security.
So what's really going on?
After just days on the ground inside Lebanon, the IDF is finding the
going very rough. It's already admitted to taking significant losses
with dozens of its soldiers killed and hundreds more injured in intense
fighting with a determined and resilient Hezbollah force as committed
now to expelling an invading Israeli force as it was in the 1980s and
1990s when it succeeded in doing it. Clearly the IDF is struggling and
taking more losses than it's willing to continue sustaining. So it wants
instead to have a proxy army it can control come into South Lebanon,
again act as its enforcers, engage Hezbollah in confrontation if necessary
and have it do its killing and dying for it. Will Hezbollah and the
people of South Lebanon now allow it in when they were unwilling to
accept their SLA and UNIFIL occupiers in the past? Not a chance, Israel
and the US know it, and yet both countries are going through the charade
of trying to convince the world, the Lebanese people throughout the
cuntry, and its government that they will. Once the fighting ends, the
IDF likely will withdraw and an occupying force acceptable to Israel
will move in to serve in its place. It will be as unwelcome as the others
that preceded it and eventually it will be driven out. But before it
is, many more will die and suffer, and the long struggle of the Lebanese
people and Palestinians as well in the Occupied Territories will go
on unresolved.
Stephen Lendman lives
in Chicago and can be reached at [email protected].
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.