One hundred seven members of UNESCO voted to admit Palestine to the body, which was enough. You can watch a short video of the rather suspenseful vote here. Reaction has been swift.
Some people will say these things are only symbolic, and it doesn't matter, but if that were true we wouldn't see all this huffing and puffing. It matters because it changes the facts on the ground. It changes the narrative. And it puts the US and Israel on the back foot.
Palestine can now apply for some sites to be World Heritage Sites. Some of these sites may have Israeli settlers around. That brings a different authority to the settler problem. Suddenly there's a teacher in the room.
The inventory consists of twenty sites, including seventeen cultural and three natural heritage sites, which reflect the cultural and natural diversity of Palestine. The list includes the historical cities (Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus), major archaeological sites (Tell es-Sultan, Qumran, Sebastia, Mount Gerzim, Anthedon, and TellUm Amer), cultural and religious routes, natural (Wadi Gaza, Umm er-Rihan) and cultural landscape sites (Palestine, Land of Olives, El-Bariyah), as well as potential trans-boundary sites (Dead Sea). It is important to mention that “The Old City of Jerusalem and Its Walls” was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981.
You can see if you click through that link, that this process has been ongoing for many years, meaning the process of recognizing and identifying sites in Palestine of "outstanding universal value" to humanity. To call it premature, regrettable, deeply damaging, etc., and to withdraw funding from UNESCO, simply reveals the pathetic whinging of the US and Israel.
Whatever will they do if Palestinian cultural and religious routes are declared UNESCO World Heritage sites? How are all those checkpoints going to feel to the tourists on their Palestine Holy Land vacations, as they retrace Palestinian World Heritage religious routes of pilgrimage? What about the Palestinian Land of Olives olive groves? We guess the IOF and settlers can't be burning up and tearing out Palestinian Land of Olive World Heritage olive groves, hmm? And maybe some of those settlers won't be allowed to throw their garbage out their windows onto the Palestinian World Heritage streets of Hebron?
You know how it is... fucking UNESCO... Ruining Everything.
The three presidents had to agree in order for Bosnia to vote. So far
the Muslim Bosniak leader supports the bid, the Serb member is
pro-Israeli and the Croat member has not yet not clearly stated his
position. The three members have to agree on a common policy or abstain.
...Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman additionally visited the
Bosnian Serb stronghold of Banja Luka where decisions are made on how
the Serbs will vote in joint state institutions.
The leader of the
Bosnian Serbs and president of their mini-state, Milorad Dodik, said
after the meeting that the Serb representatives in the central
institutions are against the possibility of Bosnia voting at the
Security Council for the Palestinian bid.
He added that he now expects Bosnian Serbs and Israel to strengthen economic ties and work on tourism and agriculture.
Lieberman,
a Russian speaker who was born in Moldova, was on his second visit to
the Bosnian Serbs this year, and spent several days of his vacation in
the Bosnian Serb part of the country.
However, we also note that Bosnian foreign minister Sven Alkalaj, one of about 600 Jews in all of Bosnia who luckily happens to have the very influential job of foreign minister which of course is sheer coincidence and means nothing, visited Oman the past week to discuss trade ties.
The guest also spoke about the possible areas of cooperation in the
trade between the Sultanate and Bosnia and Herzegovina and the products
that could be exported to the Sultanate as this cooperation might be
considered as the gate for European countries, in addition to the
available advantages for investment there.
Oman, location location location...
Interesting because the latest US plan for "security architecture" involves making a little "mini-NATO" out of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman, in order for these countries to push back against Iran. And these arrangements will allow an expanded US military presence all around Iran, which makes Israel happy. Also, coincidentally, Bosnia's got a great trade deal on the line with Oman, and a few days later Bosnia managed to abstain from the vote on Palestinian statehood at the UN Security Council, which makes Israel happy. Win win win win.
Oman is located on the eastern Arabian peninsula, controlling the Strait
of Hormuz’s western bank, and providing an overwatch position for both
the entrance to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean near Africa.
...This is not a sale, yet, just an announcement that will allow
negotiations to begin, if Congress does not move to block the sale.
Oman’s Foreign Military Sale request includes:
18 Avenger Fire Units
18 AN/VRC-92E exportable Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS)
6 FIM-92 Stinger Block 1 Production Verification Flight Test missiles
24 Captive Flight Trainers. Sensors and electronics, but missile can’t fire.
20 S250 Shelters
20 High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs)
1 lot AN/MPQ-64F1 Improved SENTINEL Radar software
290 AIM-120C7 Surface-Launched AMRAAM missiles
6 Guidance Sections
Surface-Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (SL-AMRAAM) software to support Oman’s Ground Based Air defense System
Plus training missiles, missile components, warranties,
containers, weapon support equipment, repair and return, spare and
repair parts, publications and technical documentation, personnel
training and training equipment, and various forms of U.S. Government
and contractor support services.
The prime contractors will be Raytheon Missile Systems of Tucson, AZ
(SLAMRAAM prime contractor), and Boeing of Huntsville, AL (Avenger
prime, though Stinger is a Raytheon product). Implementation of this
proposed sale will require multiple trips to Oman involving many U.S.
Government or contractor representatives over a period of up to or over
15 years for program and technical support, equipment checkout, and
training.
http://sleeplessandtired.com/?p=2428
"American Cowboys Ride with Emirates to Quell Rebel and Iranian Attacks"
"In fact, my own personal experiences with the pro-Israel Lobby inside the United States demonstrate Israel's intense interest in Africa....From land reform to blood diamonds to various warnings I sent to certain African oil-producing countries to support for African self-determination and against artificial efforts to create divisions in Cote d'Ivoire, Zaire/Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sudan, I found an incredible interest in all things African on the part of the pro-Israel Lobby." ~ Cynthia McKinney, in preface to Israel and Libya: Preparing Africa for the "Clash of Civilizations" by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
This is an important document. You should read it.
The plan operates on two essential premises. To survive, Israel must 1)
become an imperial regional power, and 2) must effect the division of
the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab
states.Small here will depend on the ethnic or sectarian
composition of each state. Consequently, the Zionist hope is that
sectarian-based states become Israel's satellites and, ironically, its
source of moral legitimation....What they want and what they are planning for is not an Arab world, but a
world of Arab fragments that is ready to succumb to Israeli hegemony.
The Atlantic, in 2008, and the U.S. military's Armed Forces Journal, in 2006, both published widely circulated maps that closely followed the outline of the Yinon Plan. Aside from a divided Iraq, which the Biden Plan also calls for, the Yinon Plan calls for a divided Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria. The partitioning of Iran, Turkey, Somalia, and Pakistan also all fall into line with these views. The Yinon Plan also calls for dissolution in North Africa and forecasts it as starting from Egypt and then spilling over into Sudan, Libya, and the rest of the region.
The "death" of Gaddafi, whether real or staged, facilitates the media closing a chapter and directing our attention elsewhere.
He’s not calling it a war, but President Obama will be sending
American troops into Central Africa to offer military assistance.
In order to aid with the takedown of Joseph Kony and his Lord’s
Resistance Army in Central Africa, President Barack Obama told Congress
today that he has authorized upwards of 100 American soldiers into the
region to “remove from the battlefield” LRA leader Kony and other high-ranking officials of his army.
In a letter address to House Speaker John Boehner today, President Obama says that American troops"will only be providing information, advice and assistance to partner nation forces,”but that they could engage in battle if necessary for self defense.
Obama
says that his decision to send troops into Central Africa comes as a
response to two decades’ worth of aggression perpetrated by Kony and the
LRA, whom the president says is responsible for having “murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of men, women and children in central Africa” and continues to
“commit atrocities across the Central African Republic, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan that have a disproportionate
impact on regional security.”
In all, human rights groups and
the Obama administration have estimated that thousands of Africans have
been assassinated by the LRA army, which also regularly enlists young
women as sex slaves and young men as guerilla soldiers. The first
American troops already arrived in Uganda on Wednesday and will soon
deploy elsewhere throughout the region once other area nations approve
the action. Meanwhile, US military operations continue in Asia, the
Middle East and elsewhere.
What could possibly go wrong? How about some engaging of the battles as necessary for self defense, regrettably escalating the situation, requiring more troops as back up?
So the story goes, Joseph Kony -- the *elusive* Joseph Kony -- has waged guerrilla warfare for 20 years, against the Ugandan government, and as head of the Lord's Resistance Army. And now finally, after 20 years, American Heroes will go and get this fucker. We are not sure what took so long and why now, all of a sudden, it's time to get Kony. Or why now, all of a sudden, it's time to make a big trade for Gilad Shalit. But it's time.
Kony
may be barking mad -- he performs bizarre rituals and claims to fight
for "the Ten Commandments" -- but he has survived for two decades,
outnumbered and outmatched by every metric, on little more than his
ideology and his wits. "Kony is a brilliant tactician & knows the
terrain better than anybody. He surrounds himself with scouts who have
what amounts to an early warning system, which is how he's eluded
capture for so long," Morehouse College assistant professor and Central
Africa expert Laura Seay warned on twitter.
"Kony also operates in some of the least-governed areas of the world's
weakest states. Many of these places have no roads, infrastructure. All
of this adds up for a potential mess for US troops, who don't know the
terrain & can't count on host government troops to be helpful or
even to fight. This will not be easy for only 100 US forces to carry
out, especially given language barriers." Seay also points out that Kony
uses children as human shield -- and as much of his fighting force --
making any direct action ethically and morally difficult.
Sure. Ideology and wits, brilliant tactician with incredible early warning system, just like those wily TCOs. Sure, sure. And why now?
It's difficult to
find a U.S. interest at stake in the Lord's Resistance Army's campaign
of violence. The group could go on killing and enslaving for decades --
as they well might -- and the American way of life would continue
chugging along. It's possible that there's some immediate U.S. interest
at stake we can't obviously see. Maybe, for example, Uganda is offering
the U.S. more help with peacekeeping and counterterrorism in East Africa,
where the U.S. does have concrete interests, in exchange for the
troops. But it certainly looks like a primarily or purely humanitarian
military mission, if a very small one. The Obama administration is
hoping that these 100 troops will succeed where past U.S. assistance
against the LRA -- intelligence, satellite images, fuel, and millions
of dollars -- has failed. Maybe they will and maybe they won't. But this
seems to suggest a small but important shift in how, where, and why the
U.S. uses applies military force.
July 2011 Congress lifts a hold on AFRICOM to spend $4.4 million on communications and intelligence training, and communications and engineering equipment, to help Uganda remove Kony. This all follows from legislation drawn up in 2009, signed into law in 2010, and now being funded and "executed," for humanitarian purposes of course.
In May 2010, the President Obama signed into law the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009, which
required that the executive branch draw up a strategy to support
multilateral efforts to protect civilians from the LRA, to apprehend or
remove the LRA leader Joseph Kony, and to disarm and demobilize LRA
fighters.
Who is this all about? Joseph Kony. Evidently, he's one bad dude.
In 2006 Oprah described the LRA's activities in Northern Uganda as an 'African Holocust'.
In 2008 the US listed Kony as a global terrorist.
He has no known assets except
guns and a satellite phone.
He was born to a Catholic father and an Anglican mother in 1961, was an altar boy, then a village witchdoctor.
He claims to follow the Ten Commandments.
In 2006 he appeared on camera with South Sudan Vice President Riek
Marchar, allegedly to negotiate for peace with Uganda, which did not materialize because he never keeps his word.
He has supporters.*
He lacks popular support.
His deputies hate and fear him, believing him a "magical being" who can hear their thoughts.
He appears to be mythical in his ability to escape capture, claiming to use witchcraft to foretell danger.
He and his small army of under 500, using improvised weapons, consistently outwit armies.
His militants have been trained in harsh survival techniques.
Sort of like Osama and Al Qaeda in caves, except this time it's Kony and the LRA in the jungle. CAPICE?
So, who are his supporters????
He has a network of supporters in the Diaspora, who help give some form
of legitimacy to the rebellion and maybe funding. All the nine people on
his Juba Peace Negotiating Team are Ugandans living in the Diaspora.
The head of the LRA peace negotiating team until 2009, Dr David
Nyekorach Matsanga stays in the United Kingdom. If the Uganda government
allegations against the government of Sudan for funding the LRA are
true, then Kony has a lot of weapons at his disposal to cause any form
of mayhem.
I am a Ugandan who fled the country in 1985 when Milton
Obote was overthrown. It was a Saturday morning at 10:00am and since
then I have not lived in Uganda.
... Q: Have you ever met Kony?
A: Yes, I have met Kony physically over 16 times.
...Q: Are you confident that Kony wants peace?
A: I am confident that Kony wants peace but it is the people
around him who are confusing him. He is surrounded by selfish people,
especially in the diaspora who are not focused and are not for peace.
They bombard him with calls and all sorts of ideas.They never supported
the talks and do not want Kony to sign the peace agreement.
QUICK RECAP THERE: Diapora Ugandan living in London presumably traveled to Uganda and met Kony over 16 times, rather giving lie to the big drama that Kony lives like a murderous jungle hobo surviving on tree bark. Rather it seems his satellite phone RINGS OFF THE HOOK with advice from his DIASPORA SUPPORTERS, who may possibly have given him lots of weapons and funding, and who may possibly be the reason for his mythical powers of evasion.....because they do not want peace..... ?
Which would possibly mean, then, that this entire latest humanitarian hero mission of the US military is but one more crock of shit designed to get US troops into a RESOURCE RICH AREA, from which they can conduct another STRATEGY OF TENSION AND LOW LEVEL CONFLICT to destabilize the population and CONTROL THOSE RESOURCES......?
The whole thing about Joseph Kony being a J U S T I F I C A T I O N for the above.....?
There's another huge case of people managing to look the other way and
avoiding massive evidence of war crimes and atrocities, all of a sudden
coming to the world's attention. It will be the subject of a separate
post:
Report of the Mapping Exercise documenting the most serious
violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed
within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between
March 1993 and June 2003, August 2010 -- Unofficial translation from French original (pdf)
This report circulates while Uganda suddenly becomes very newsworthy.
We never did get around to writing about that report, but LO! It's time. This is a 500+ page report detailing the genocide that took place in the Congo between 1993 and 2003, a genocide not caused by Joseph Kony. The report covers state sponsored violence.
1138. Today, many people suspected of committing serious violations of international humanitarian law can be found in a number of institutions, in particular among senior positions in the army...
1143. In light of the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of serious violations of human
rights and international humanitarian law, and the repetition of crimes within the territory
of the DRC, there is a manifest urgency for justice and security service reform. The
members of the Mapping Team were able to observe the constant fear on the part of affected populations that history would repeat itself, especially when yesterday’s attackers are returning in positions that enable them to commit new crimes with complete impunity.
Some of the child trafficking is blamed on the Lord's Resistance Army.
Problems resulting from the political marginalisation of
northern Uganda led to the creation of the Lords Resistance Movement
(LRM), a rebel self-proclaimed Christian guerrilla army. The LRA is
accused of widespread human rights violations, including mutilation,
torture, rape, the abduction of civilians, the use of child soldiers
and a number of massacres. In fact, according to UNICEF, in 2006 alone 20,000 children were abducted.
Ruth Visick Evans, Director, Oasis Uganda, an NGO, says, "The problem
of human trafficking is rampant in eastern and central regions where
many children are taken to the border and smuggled easily into
neighbouring Kenya for forced labour and prostitution." Victoria Nafula, a senior
immigration officer in Kampala agrees and reveals that at least 300
children are shipped out everyday for as little as $130 per child....While LRA activities largely throw light on child abductions,
young women are also at risk - being lured to the United Arab
Emirates, where they end up as sex slaves. Con men also come disguised
as pastors and convince gullible audiences of how they can send their
children to "paradise".
Three hundred children per day.
Probably, we guess, the LRA could not manage to hide out in the jungle
if it kidnapped 300 children per day. Probably, we guess, some other
rings are involved in the child trafficking.
Western regimes and their genocidal puppets in Africa always creates a
slam-dog to blame for their atrocities. This has been the Case in Uganda
with the Lords resistance Army.
Joseph Kony’s Lords resistance Army has not killed more than a thousand
people for the last Seventeen years. However the American and British
trained Uganda Army (UPDF) has killed in Somalia,Uganda,Sudan,Rwanda,DR
Congo and Central Africa Republic 5 million Africans. This is a fact
and not some silly or malicious accusations. i.e.there was a time when
more than 1000 people where dying in Western sponsored concentration
camps in Northern Uganda. This went on for (work-out the maths) more
than 6years.
In spite of the Lords resistance Army’s Christian fundamentalism,
there’s no evidence of mass graves or masses of people with lips and
ears chopped off nor is this the case with the Al-Shabab, Somali
Mujahadeens.
Yoweri Museveni is a western client
and Omar Bashir a Chinese client-The likes of Tony Blair and Bill
Clinton are the ones that have planned,armed and sponsored the likes of
Paul Kagame to commit genocide. According to top secret intelligence
documents that we have obtained, Uganda armed the invasion of Rwanda
for an ambitious plan of a “regional war of liberation” which aimed to
unite 7 African countries under the leadership of President Yoweri K.
Museveni. Reunited, these countries would form a regional
showcase called “Great Unified Region; United Great Region” and to have
a “Red Army Reserve, of 2,000,000 men and willing to subject the rest
of the Saharan Africa to war and terror. Museveni
intended to act with the support of the United Kingdom and the United
States, where they hoped to further address the influence of emerging
powers like China and India and impose an Anglo-Saxon political,
economic and military imperialistic shadow on the African continent.
Alison Des Forges was Senior Advisor at the Africa Division of Human
Rights Watch knew about Ugandan soldiers training child soldiers and
committing atrocities. Not the LRA, but Ugandan soldiers.
"Attracted by the immense mineral wealth of Congo, the U.S. supported
Gen. Paul Kagame’s 1990 invasion of Rwanda from Uganda, expecting Kagame
to facilitate access to Congo. Note that the only city marked on
President Bill Clinton’s map besides the Rwandan capital Kigali is the
border city of Goma, Congo, center of the fighting over and plundering
of Congo’s mineral wealth. More than 6 million civilians would later die
under Bill Clinton’s eight-year reign – with American money, weapons
and political support."
Who is Joseph Kony? He appears to be a very useful person. We wonder if the troops will be able to find him in the jungle or if he will prove as elusive as Osama in the caves of Afghanistan.
...The Palestinian quest for U.N. recognition is now being widely debated
across the U.S., with the common denominator being total uncertainty
about its direction and implications. Even Palestinian officials close
to President Mahmoud Abbas are not certain of what happens next, because
the three primary dimensions of the move remain unknown: the
Palestinian strategy,its impact on the ground,and American-Israeli
retributive reactions.
Most interesting to watch the American-Israeli retributive reactions.
We've got people like John Bolton threatening that the US will defund the UN of the other countries of the world vote for Palestinian statehood, and people like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pushing the legislation to back him up. Meanwhile the big wonks in foreign policy world bemoan the fact that some of these retributive reactions will be bad for Israel. Yup. That's right. We guess that's what happens when you create a Frankenstein in your fucking laboratory: the monster gets loose and breaks all your glass beakers, for starters.
The law of unintended consequences comes into play, finally. When lower order bits try to control higher order bits, you get unintended consequences. When the lower order bits have lots of enforcer goons out running around doing their own thing and the lower order bits are not all on the same page, you get unintended consequences.
Dozens of tombstones belonging to Muslims and
Christians were vandalised at two Arab cemeteries in what was an alleged
'price tag' attack in the the Ajami neighbourhood of Jaffa, Israel.
Graves at the Muslim al-Kazakhana cemetery were defaced with graffiti
reading “Death to Arabs” and “Price tag”, written in Hebrew along with
other messages. Some of the tombstones had been smashed. Graffiti was
also found in a Christian Orthodox cemetery next to al-Kazakhana
cemetery
The damage was discovered on the eve of Yom Kippur, or Day of
Atonement which is the holiest day of the year for Jews, but it is not
clear when exactly they were defaced.
The attack is the second alleged 'price-tag' attack in Israel in the
past week. A week earlier a mosque in the Bedouin village of Tuba
Zangaria was severely damaged in an alleged arson attack by Jewish
extremists. The interior of the mosque suffered extensive damage and
dozens of copies of the Quran were burned and damaged by the fire.
Shimon Peres was forced to condemn the behavior as despicable acts that disgraces Israeli society. Something Must Be Done. But is anything ever done about this problem? Is this a new problem? No. Talk is cheap.
Settlers walking around with their ASSAULT RIFLES.
Avraham Dichter, a former chief of Israel's
internal security agency, the Shin Bet, told Reuters the time had come
to move against militant settlers, whom he described as "miserable
people with a terrorist mindset." Settlers' mosque-burning campaign expands into Israel
Israel owns this problem, the problem of the settlers. Netanyahu owns this problem. These settlers are a live grenade in Bibi's hand.
Palestinians walking under trash thrown by settlers.
"Photo: Michael Carpenter. Settlers attempt to force Palestinian
residents out of Hebron’s Old City by throwing trash into their homes.
To combat this, nets have been installed around the area."
In a video of a recent fight between settlers and a Palestinian farmer
and protesters near the settlement of Anatot, carried on Israeli news
websites, settlers are heard to chant ''death to Arabs'' and call female
protesters ''sluts'', saying: ''All of these women f--- Arabs.''
In this incident - on September 30 - a settler is seen attacking the
crowd with a knife, protesters and villagers are punched to the ground,
and throughout the ensuing mayhem, the video shows hardly any soldiers
in the area to keep the peace.
When the soldiers do come, village leaders say, they either stand by and
watch the attacks, or provoke further violence rather than protecting
people and property.
...In July 2008, settlers began to use the spring and in February 2009 they
started to renovate the area. Palestinians filed complaints with the
police about the work, which was undertaken without permit on
privately-owned land, and which damaged trees and property, the human
rights group B'Tselem said. All the complaints were closed on grounds
of ''offender unknown'' or ''lack of evidence''. The matter now rests
with the High Court.
''Almost every week we smell tear gas,'' said Bashir Tamimi, head of the
village of 550 residents. ''Settler violence is increasing - they are
chopping down trees, damaging roads. After [Palestinian Authority
president Mahmoud] Abbas went to the UN, it appeared that theIsraeli
government let the settlers loose, and allowed them to do whatever they
wanted.''
...Last month, the army established a military post on a hilloverlooking
the valley between the Esh-Kodesh outpost and the village. ''In spite of this, it is suspected that settlers managed to vandalise
200 trees unhindered by the soldiers,'' B'Tselem spokeswoman Sarit
Michaeli said. ''Regardless of whether the soldiers noticed the settlers
and chose to ignore them or whether they weren't present in the area,
this is a particularly severe case where the security forces violated
their obligation to protect the Palestinian residents and their
property.''
According to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, more than 900 trees were uprooted or set alight in the week of
September 21-27, and more than half of them were in Qusra.
Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsour, an official in charge of the Arab Unity movement
in Jaffa, condemned the ongoing Israeli attacks against Islamic holy
sites, a continuing problem with little follow-up or investigation by
Israeli police. He added that the Israeli police have not yet caught any
of the perpetrators of these crimes against the Arab and Muslim
population of Jaffa.
He sent word to the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu; Israeli
President, Shimon Peres; and Israeli Interior Security Minister,
Ohronovic, stating that Palestinian Muslims have not yet recovered from
the burning of the Al-Nour Mosque in the village of Toba Zanghriyya on
October 4th. He claimed that the attack was supported, directly or
indirectly, by Israeli officials. Certain Israeli officials have made
public statements implicitly endorsing such attacks on the non-Jewish
population of Israel.
Even Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in his recent address to
the United Nations, expressed his respect for the Lubavitcher Rebbe,
who have stated on multiple occasions that non-Jewish lives are worth
less than Jewish lives, and have argued that the killing of a non-Jew by
a Jew does not constitute murder.
What do you see? A Palestinian with a gun? WRONG.
"An undercover Israeli policeman runs after making arrests during clashes
that erupted between Israeli troops and Palestinian stone-throwers at
Qalandiya checkpoint September 21, 2011."
The Palestinian Authority has won a first diplomatic victory after the
country gained initial approval of a bid for full membership in UNESCO,
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a move deemed "inexplicable" by the United States....Membership would allow Palestinian officials to seek the protection of
Palestinian historical sites by the cultural organization which is in
turn set to create further tensions with Tel Aviv given some of them are
in territories annexed by Israel.
Palestinians wanting membership in UNESCO is "inexplicable" to the United States. Hillary Clinton is "confused."
"I found quite confusing and somehow inexplicable that you would have
organs of the United Nations making decisions about statehood or
statehood status while the issue has been presented to the United
Nations," she said. Before adding "the decision about status must be made in the United Nations and not in auxiliary groups." "Unfortunately there are those who, in their enthusiasm to recognize
the aspirations of the Palestinian people, are skipping over the most
important step, which is determining what the state will look like, what
its borders are, how it will deal with the myriad issues that states
must address" she also explained.
And there are some other ladies who have a thing or two to say about this: Kay Granger and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. These ladies are very angry.
Proving the U.S. is willing to take further actions to prevent the
move, US Republican lawmaker Kay Granger, who chairs the subcommittee in
charge of US monies for diplomatic purposes threatened she "will
advocate for all funding to be cut off", if UNESCO accepted the
Palestinians in as a state.
Her comments backed those of the chairwoman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who had Tuesday urged the
administration to "make clear that any decision to upgrade the
Palestinian mission's status by UNESCO or any other U.N. entity will
lead to a cutoff of U.S. funds to that entity."
The US checkbook to ALL OF UNESCO will snap shut if that body accepts the Palestinians as a full member....?
Ooh dear that seems like a bit of Collective Punishment action. Geez. Calm down.
This is clearly a matter of great consternation, because it is one thing to protect little wooden churches in Krakow, Poland, and little stone cottages in Puglia, Italy; and it is another thing entirely to protect sites in OCCUPIED Palestine, such as in Hebron, Bethlehem and Jericho, in the West Bank. If there are going to be UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Holy Land, they better all be under Jewish control first... ?
"The tragedy is that
this hampers UNESCO from doing its real job... A relatively small minority is
hijacking the organization for other purposes."~ Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Nimrod Barkan said, apparently without irony
How is this hampering UNESCO from doing its real job of protecting World Heritage Sites? What an inexplicable and confusing thing to say.
“This is not going to create a state for them. It is going to make things harder … It further exacerbates
the environment of tension.” ~ U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, who is Jewish of course, like so many people at the US State Department
How does this make things harder and further exacerbate the environment of tension? What is she talking about? UNESCO is about building peace in the minds of men and women, right? It says so right on their damn webpage.
Barkan said he hoped there would be time between now and the General
Conference to “undo” the decision, arguing that there was no such entity
as Palestine.
"Feeling
that their efforts at the U.N. Security Council will fail, the
Palestinian leadership is shopping around the U.N. system for
recognition. It is deeply disappointing to see UNESCO, which has reformed itself in
recent years, poised to support this dangerous Palestinian scheme. The
U.S. must strongly oppose this move."~ Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Shopping around? Hey, what do you suppose is the PRICE the Palestinians have to pay for UNESCO membership? What do you suppose is the PRICE the Palestinians have to pay for statehood?
The math is complicated with the Palestinians so far only assured of
public support from six countries:Brazil, China, India, Lebanon, Russia
and South Africa.
The European powers say they have not yet
decided how to vote but diplomats say Britain, Colombia, France,
Germany, Portugal and United States will abstain or oppose the
resolution.
That leaves Bosnia, Gabon and Nigeria in the diplomatic firing line.
Bosnia, Gabon and Nigeria.
Malki is to go to Bosnia, where the country’s ethnically divided three-man presidency is split on backing the Palestinians.
Other
high-level delegations are to visit Gabon and Nigeria, Palestinian
officials said, even though Malki said he has assurances from the two
that they will back membership.
The three kingmakers already
recognize the Palestinian state, but also see the US diplomatic shadow
hanging over them. "The United States has political and economic
leverage," said one UN council diplomat. Bosnian Muslim and Croat
co-presidents Bakir Izetbegovic and Zeljko Komsic support the
Palestinian bid, but Serb member Nebojsa Radmanovic is against. Bosnia’s
UN votes are normally decided by consensus, so diplomats say the
divisions and close links to the United States could force them into an
abstention.
"My sympathies lie with the Palestinians and Palestine
as a state. But politics is not just sympathies and private positions,"
Komsic told the Dnevi Avaz newspaper Friday.
There has been a
Palestinian delegation in Gabon for several years but the country could
abstain, a source close to the country’s presidency told AFP. Gabon will
support the Palestinians or abstain, the source said.
Nigeria’s
Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru has signalled support for the
Palestinian bid, without saying clearly how Africa’s most populous
nation will vote, media reports say.
Half of Nigeria’s 150 million
population is Muslim and it is a country which the United States has in
the past had difficulty gaining leverage over.
Nigeria will
however be in a delicate position as it chairs the Security Council for
October, including the membership committee and the full meetings if a
vote is held.
Although the Obama Administration has promised a rogue veto once the
voting is in favour of the Palestinians, the US and Israel have been
putting enormous lobbying resources and crude pressure on the members of
the UNSC, including Nigeria, to prevent the need and shame of using the
veto.
At this crucial time, the Nigerian government, the Nigerian media and
Nigerian people must do the right thing, we must remember the glorious
roles we played in supporting the victims of the racist policy of
Apartheid in South Africa, examine our conscience and do the right thing
again.
This is our true nature that we must connect with in this case. There
is no reason for us to behave differently now because the policy that
Israel exercises in the occupied territories is similar to that of
Apartheid South Africa....
Nigeria already recognises the Palestinian nation and voting against
its legalization at the UN will be a direct contradiction to our foreign
policy objectives in relation to the conflict, the noble role Nigeria
has always played in that part of the world.
As it did during the dark era of Apartheid, Nigeria must now show its
true friendship towards the oppressed and not succumb to the tremendous
pressure that the US will put on the administration to vote against the
bid or abstain.
Nothing will benefit NIgeria by abstaining or voting against freedom for the oppressed.
It is clear to the whole world that US is a partner-in-crime to
Israel and, part and parcel of the conflict on the side of Israel.
Bosnia has a three member presidency, as well as a foreign minister, Mr. Sven Alkalaj. Reportedly, Mr. Alkalaj, the foreign minister, is Jewish. What are the odds? There are reportedly only about 600 Jews in all of Bosnia, and one is foreign minister. Lucky lucky lucky.
A year after last October's general election, Bosnia is still without
a central government, with the inability of political leaders to agree
on a future cabinet hampering the bid for EU integration.
"Instead
of seeking a compromise, the six parties (taking part in the
negotiations) are stuck in their hardline positions," explained Srecko
Latal of the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank.
Condemning
the "irresponsibility" of political leaders, Latal told AFP that the
absence of a new government "will cost Bosnia a lot, as this situation
ruins its (international) reputation."
He noted that the country
has seen its credit ratings downgraded by international financial
agencies, while foreign investments in the Balkan country have fallen 75
percent since 2009.
A primarily Muslim country with a significant Catholic minority, and a Jewish foreign minister, divided and unable to form a government, with think tanks, bankers, investors, and the US breathing down its neck...and we are hoping they vote with the Palestinians in the UN Security Council. Granted, it seems unlikely.
"Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (second from left) is welcomed by
members of Bosnian Presidency, Zeljko Komsic (left), Bakir Izetbegovic
(second from right), and Nebojsa Radmanovic (right) upon his arrival for
bilateral talks in Sarajevo on August 15." source
Bosnian politicians are split on the Palestinian issue along the same
ethnic lines as in the the case of independence for Kosovo, which
Sarajevo has not recognized.
Denisa Sarajlic-Maglajlic, an analyst at the Sarajevo-based Foreign
Policy Initiative, told RFE/RL on August 15 that "the problem is...that
Bosnia does not have a foreign policy, does not have an agreed position
about most issues. What comes out in these situations are party, ethnic,
or 'entity' interests, which then influence everything."
Local media reported that the presidency's Bosnian Muslim member, Bakir
Izetbegovic, and Croat member Zeljko Komsic support the Palestinian
drive for statehood while their Serbian colleague, Nebojsa Radmanovic,
is opposed.
The position of Muslim politicians and religious leaders reflects a high
level of sympathy for the Palestinians and close ties with the Islamic
world.
But Republika Srpska, which along with the Muslim-Croat Federation
composes Bosnia-Herzegovina, has in recent years intensified its
relations with Israel.
Pro-Israeli analysts and commentators are also often quoted in Bosnian
Serb media with statements about Bosnia being a potential hotbed of
Islamic radicalism.
Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik visited Israel last year and
promised to promote Israeli interests in Bosnia when he had the
opportunity.
In May, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman visited the Srpska
capital, Banja Luka, on a private trip with a group of businessmen.
Milos Solaja, a Banja Luka-based political analyst, told RFE/RL that
Bosnia would in the end probably try to follow European Union directives
on the Palestinian statehood issue.
"Bosnia is in a delicate situation and there is a heavy burden on our
politicians' shoulders," Solaja said. "Bosnia could stay neutral in this
affair and it probbaly will in the end."
Most of the leading politicians in Bosnia and Herzegovina are
directly connected with or involved in crime and criminal activities.
The whole state is caught in the vicious circle of politics, mafia and
crime. The property records of politicians reported to the Central
Election Commission (CIK) do not reflect the actual situation, since the
data is adjusted and in many cases incorrect. The wealth of leading
politicians such as Milorad Dodik, Haris Silajdžić and Dragan Čović is
much higher than that stated in their property records, because their
property is transferred to other persons, relatives, friends and bank
accounts kept abroad.
The recruitment of new politicians is
practically impossible in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because the political
and social life is also trapped to the vicious circle of politics, mafia
and crime. Thus, new politicians may only enter the sphere if approved
by the current political elites.
Connections between crime and
politics were created already during the period when Bosnia and
Herzegovina was gaining independence, because the leading politicians at
that time needed the services of criminal structures. Since then those
connections became inseparable and can be defined as "criminalisation of
politics and politisation of criminal".
Analysts have pointed to
the very difficult situation and at the same time believe that no mass
protests and demonstrations will arise in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
because the leading structures have gained control over trade unions,
military veteran organisations, media, NGOs and other organisations.
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