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US Defunds UNESCO After Palestine Vote
gzipped_tar writes "The U.S. withdrew funding after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Palestine membership vote yesterday. The decision was triggered by a 1994 US law that requires financial ties to be cut with any UN agency that accords the Palestinians full membership. As Palestine actively pursues entrance to other UN agencies, the defunding list could grow. Interestingly, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) could also be among Palestine's next target, and U.S. is the big supporter of WIPO. A much more disturbing scenario is Palestine joining the International Atomic Energy Agency, cutting American funding to the organization that monitors nuclear proliferation in states like Iran."
UNESCO is one of the most highly regarded and wide-spread agencies for cultural preservation in the World. There is a fundamental flaw in a law predicating U.S. contributions to the United Nations and U.N. affiliates on their members voting a certain way. UNESCO does not control its members and how they vote.
The fact that a majority of UNESCO members want to grant admission to a Palestinian state is no reason for the U.S. to "pick up its marbles and go home." UNESCO would be better with U.S. participation. The U.S. would be better off by participating in UNESCO.
This law should be repealed before the US has removed itself from every UN organization in the world.
Is Palestine joining this agency even possible.
"Should the request be endorsed by the Board and approved by the General Conference, the Government concerned should deposit an instrument of acceptance of the Statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency with the United States Government, the depositary Government under Article XXI (C) of the Agency's Statute.
The instrument of acceptance of the Statute should be on the lines of the attached model No.2, subject to any changes necessitated by the constitutional practice and diplomatic protocol of the State concerned, and should be sent to the Department of State, Washington, USA."
Any organization that does then should obviously not be funded by us. Pretty simple.
Yes, please!
I don't think that the US would have any second thoughts about getting out of WIPO. They are already pretty much bypassing it every way they can with other multilateral treaties and organisations. TRIPS or ACTA, anyone?
US democratic values at work.
It seems they copied Henry Fords rule "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black".
Actually it would be a good thing if the US removed itself from all UN institutions and other international organisms.
Less american influence, the better the world will be.
Yes, of course, the U.S.'s discrimination against Palestine in all matters is very helpful. The U.S. said the peace process benefits from pulling out of UNESCO, so of course it does. Just as funding Israel's military and violations of International Law helps the peace process.
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Read that as 'UNATCO'?
How much more money can we cut from the toilet flush of internationalism?
So basically let me get this right. The only obvious only real solution to the Palestine issue, Palestinian statehood, would essentially force the US to pull out of the UN almost completely? That's just dumb.
I can see why this law was put in place, it is setup to automatically bully the UN organisations into not recognizing Palestine. It is no means a legitimate reason. US repeal this law and other like it, otherwise you will lose the respect of the world more than you already have.
And now the power has shifted, and the other side is showing what they've learned. (Hint: Nothing about how to be good people, lots about how to sell oppression.)
I fail to see progress.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
What more is there to say?
I read the headline as:
"US Defends UNESCO After Palestine Vote"
Anyway... today's news is reporting Benjamin Netanyahu calling for accelerated construction in the West Bank and Israel effectively punishing Palestinians for the Unesco move .
Can someone with a clear understanding of the situation please explain how this these actions by Israel are Just? Is Israel encroaching on Palestinian land?
I'm sorry, i'm a bit lost.
What did the Palestines do to us? I know we hate them, i just don't understand why.
Did they copy copyrighted software? Do they not sell us oil? Are they communist? Oh, i know, they host Wikileaks?
I know this doesn't have anything to do with religion, since we made America it's own country because of the lack of freedom to believe/worship how people wanted to worship/believe. Oh, and because of Taxes, so maybe Palestine are taxing us?
I understand why the world hates us, but i can't understand why we would hate the Palestines, unless it's because they are Arabs and it's cool to hate Arabs.
Be seeing you...
I get Sick and Tired of listening to how the rest of the world hates us, but they still want our money. We give more money to more countries than any other country, and most of those countries citizens turn around and bash us. F THEM!
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
This is an excellent news for Unesco, It did leave it alone from 1984 till 2002/3 and this was mutch better than the years between 2003 and Now.
First it will remove a large cadre of US employees from Unesco staff, and since there is a total disconnect between the US point of view on education and culture and the rest of the world it will enable the Unesco to work more efficiently without having to focus on making large american corporations and large US private universities happy.
It also shows how spitefull the current administration is (well the other party would probably do the same), influence at the unesco is largelly dependent on the size of each state contribution, so the US with 22% would have buried the palestinian, in practice maybe one or two managers and at most half a dozen palestinian employees will be hired, and probably mostly active in some cultural history preservation task in the middle east.
The US could have said publicly that the vote of Unesco is not binding for them, and that the officially "protest" the cooptation of a non state as a full member, but that they would go on working with Unesco to further cultural, etc....
But no, they have to "punish" the UN, well certainly there are a lot of undemocratic and unsavory regime who have influence there, but remember many are "allies" of the US, and there is no easy way to get people of the world represented.
To those who think that the US should "remove itself from the UN", just remember that this would in practice mean that "big countries" would unilaterally govern by "divide and conquer", so in the "best (from US point of view) case" you would have an "imperial republic" leading the world by having a small minority (only about 5% of the world population are US citizens) vote for everybody else, in the more likely case you would have the Communist Party of China ruling the world... (US waste of money in the financial system created the crisis which now pushes the European to borrow money from the PRC, how long do you think it will take till you have to pay the interests ?).
So meanwhile thank you very much leaving the Unesco alone...
How many of the people who did that are still alive?
What happened then has nothing to do with what is happening now.
If your talking politics then you need to know that Israel has defied more international legislation than any other country in the world according to UN.
If your talking religion then I'm afraid what you say makes no sense when you realise that the Quran states a Muslim can not be a Muslim unless they accept Jews and Christians as their brethren who possess books that originally eminated from God. During the crusades, the so called Christian army slaughtered the united Christians, Jews and Muslims who lived in peace together in the middle east. Additionally, you would find in the history books that the Jews regard their golden era in Europe during the time of Muslim Spain where they were given refuge and not discriminated against ( http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-768956312207897325 ). In fact they were elevated to high positions within society. So please keep your seeds of discord and hate speech to yourself whilst everyone continues to work on uniting mankind.
With the inclusion of the so-called state of Palestine. Thus we cannot suppor them.
Its funny how there is so much concern for the lack of funding that may result from this. But there is 0 concern that the Palestinian organization/ terrorist groups (aka Hamas) that make up their government are not forced to comply with the standards established by the organization. It supposed to support peace, freedom right and understanding. I didn't know supporting suicide bombings was a plus on the application. The bottom line is just a couple of weeks ago the Palestinians cheered many returned from jail for committing unspeakable acts of murder on civilians and the UN member countries (most of which are run by thuggish dictators) looked the other way. The UN has a long history of antisemitism, from the Durban conference to multiple other examples. The US foots far too much of the bill for these organizations as it is. If they want to continue in their racist ways, it shouldn't be on our dime. PS this isn't just for new projects, UNSECO won't get another dime going forward. Other agencies should keep this in mind before supporting a group on multiple terrorist list (Hamas) with a full membership in a international body.
Please grant Palestine full membership in WIPO, preferably yesterday.
When did we go from "America the Beautiful" to "America the Butthurt"?
That is beside the point that we didn't need to be funding UNESCO in the first place, but to leave over something like this is just stupid. If you are going to leave, leave on principle, and leave all these unconstitutional organizations while you are at it. Withdraw from all the countries where we are not bound by treaty to be, and renegotiate the treaties binding our forces to those remaining nations as soon as possible. We can trade with anyone and everyone, but we don't need to wave guns in their faces while we do it. It is time the US stopped being a world paramilitary (no longer just police) force, and started being a world citizen again.
Do that, and terrorism against America will evaporate like a bad dream almost overnight.
Thinking Israel is no better than all the other fuckers over there in the armpit of the world is hardly antisemitism.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
The one thing that pisses me off more than Jew haters are the people who consistently play the antisemitism card.
If I don't agree with one bonehead decision from Israel, it's because it's a bonehead decision.
If I think Avigdor Lieberman is an asshole, it really is because he's an asshole.
I couldn't care less about religion.
The U.S. is in favor of it, of course it's good.
The U.S. would never do anything other than what's in the best interests of the world/country/people because we're free/democratic/capitalist so that makes us better than everyone else.
(sarcasm meter overload...)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Evelyn Beatrice Hall, re Voltaire
I have seen more mature 5 year olds than the US goverment
It's only one more small nail in the coffin of US world hegemony. We've already seen "Peak America" and US funding of international bodies will become increasingly irrelevant with time. Living beyond your means is unsustainable and it's sad to watch a combination of political decay, corruption and the self-inflicted shackles of antiquated patent laws cripple a once-great power.
You've clearly never been to Israel, nor to the West Bank or Gaza. Where are the concentration camps? Where are the mass graves? Why are there no Arabs in the Knesset? Why do Arabs have to wear funny armbands or get tattooed?
Unfortunately, Islam has been hijacked by radicals who believe the only good non-Muslim is a dead one. What you say is true, but that's history. No ME country tolerates Jews, accept for Israel.
(Not that Jews are not allowed, but they must practice in secret, if at all.)
The Palestinians are hoisting the U.S by it's own petard. The U.S. government passed the 1994 law as a "do what we say or else" measure, under the false belief that this would force the UN to follow U.S. policy. Instead, the Palestinians are being admitted to UN agencies anway, and we're cutting our own throat automatically.
It's not the Palestinians who should be worried.
All about me
Where is this Palestine to OP speaks of?
Can it be Christmas already?
So you're saying the US would have a choice between politically supporting Israel's safety against Iran and politically supporting Israel's interests against Palestine? Yeah, you know what, this wouldn't be such a bad thing either.
The question no asks is why is UNESCO voting to allow membership to the Palestinian Authority? Typically one has to be a state in order to qualify for membership in a UN state organization. The Palestinian Authority has submitted an application applying for state status in the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, but it hasn't yet come up for debate, so it seems to me that this is putting the cart before the wagon. My guess is that this just politics, and since typically what used to be called the non-aligned nations basically have an automatic majority except on the Security Council they can pretty much do whatever they want, even if it violates UN rules. My question is this: if Palestine can be a member of UNESCO, should we in the future expect Puerto Rico to be a member of UNICEF? Or the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq a member of the UN Human Rights Council. This action may open the door to all kinds of unforeseen trouble.
That's because every Muslim country votes for any anti-Israel measure, then so do Russia and China just to take a jab at the US by opposing Israel.
Tell that to the prominent Muslims whose policy is that Israel should be wiped from the Earth. This is Iran's policy, this is the policy of Hamas. The only way the Jews will be allowed to live there is under Muslim rule as second-class citizens.
Yes, I know the Muslim definition of hate speech -- anything that exposes their violent history and their genocidal goals. That's why they've been trying to get a ban on "defamation of religion" passed in the UN. And unlike US defamation law, the truth will not be a defense.
It takes a special kind of fool to equate what Israel does to the execution of six million Jews. The Palestinians are in no risk of becoming extinct. One does not have to approve of everything Israel does, but when you frame things the way you do, well, it just makes look either like an evil fucking bastard or a plain worthless brainless moron.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The "self-hating Jew" card is even better.
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The local Muslims have wanted the Jews dead or out of the area since the Ottomans stopped enforcing that everybody get along. In the 20s and 30s their efforts to murder or expel the local Jews hadn't been very effective with the British in charge.
They saw that the Nazis were becoming powerful, and that they wanted all Jews dead, so they hitched their wagon to that cause in the hopes that their Jewish problem could be solved.
Their Jew hatred didn't start with the Nazis, they were just natural allies. Those people aren't still alive, but their ideology is still running strong in Palestine.
Ah frame things the way you do = tell the truth. There is nothing Israels supporters hate more than the truth about
the situation. Calling people names who dont beleive the lies is pathetic.
Your bigotry and ignorance are showing. Israeli bigotry is a reflection of Palestinian bigotry and vice versa.
Every civilization that's every lived in Palestine has been conquered at one time or another. This includes the Jews about 2 millenia ago by the Romans. Somebody will eventually conquer the Israelis or they will become a minority in their own land from immigration or a natural catastrophe or something.
Life will go on. Live with it.
It isn't at all surprising that UNESCO was the first part of the UN to recognize the Palestinian state. UNESCO has long been the most anti-Israel of any part of the UN I don't like the terms "pro-Palestinian" and "pro-Israel" as counterparts, one can be in favor of both. Focusing on that sort of approach creates way too much of a dichotomy. But, UNESCO is just anti-Israel. This is an organization which kicked Israel out temporarily once before, and at one point tried in an amazing example of historical revisionism apparently tried to claim that Maimonides was a Muslim. (See http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4097506,00.html). Maimonides was for those who are not aware a premier Jewish philosopher and doctor in the Middle Ages who wrote the 13 principles of faith that Orthodox Jews generally as their founding beliefs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides. UNESCO has also accused Israel of damaging archaeological sites even as the archaeological community has praised Israel for its preservation work. The bottom line is that UNESCO has a long history of not doing its actual job of promoting peace in the region and cultural/scientific cooperation but instead pushing an anti-Israel agenda. The Maimonides example is probably one of the worse, but it is the sort of nonsense that some people are talking about when they say that some forms of anti-Israel behavior really are just motivated by anti-Semitism.
All of that said, defunding UNESCO is a bad idea. They do some good work in the Middle East. And they do very good work on the rest of the globe. Moreover, recognizing a Palestinian state isn't that big a deal. This isn't like UNESCO's attempt 35 years ago to just kick Israel out.
The people most likely to be harmed by this are the Palestinians. Which is sad. The UN could for example have used this as an opportunity to push for better protections for minorities in the Palestinian territories, especially gays and Christians. UNESCO itself could have used this as an opportunity to get better protection of non-Islamic historical sites by the Palestinian governments. The people who are really hurt by this sort of thing are the Palestinian refugees in areas like Jordan who aren't being given citizenship in this new state, which means even if all of this goes through they will still be stateless people without a government to genuinely represent them.
Not quite.
It is certainly true that many Middle Eastern countries are actively hostile both to jews and to the state of Israel, but not every country, or it's citizenry is actively hostile to both. The brush with which you paint is a little too broad.
When I think about it there is really not much difference between the french resistance in WWII and the PLO. The PLO are just fighting the invaders. just Put yourself in their shoes. and think about it.
From Wikipedia: "In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Hebrew: , translated as "name", Arabic: ) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, Tigre and Tigrinya among others.
As language studies are interwoven with cultural studies, the term also came to describe the extended cultures and ethnicities, as well as the history of these varied peoples as associated by close geographic and linguistic distribution."
Does that not make all things anti-Palestinian antisemitic too?
When I think about it there is really not much difference between the french resistance in WWII and the PLO. The PLO are just fighting the invaders. just Put yourself in their shoes. and think about it.
Its not necessary to invoke the french. How about the Irgun ? You know that terrorist organization that planted bombs against military and civilians during the British mandate of palestine ?
And you know what, members of that terrorist organization became political leaders in the new state of Israel.
So you see, one mans terrorist is another mans legitimate political leader. But only if you win.
Palestinian statehood is only a temporary situation until they can destroy Israel. They admit this. It is a solution only if your end goal is a world without Israel.
The only obvious real solution is for the world to let Israel defend itself, for the Palestinians to know that attacks on Israel will be met with extreme retaliation, for Muslims to give up their third most holy site and allow Israel to have their one, and for all the other Muslim countries residing within the historical area of Palestine (present-day Syria, Lebanon and Jordan) to absorb their Palestinian populations instead of talking about "right of return" since those people are still in Palestine.
Under the Symington Amendment, we're not allowed to give aide to nuclear nations who won't sign onto the NTP. They get around the legality of it, with a don't ask, don't tell policy. But everyone knows Israel has nukes, so it really is a flagrant violation of US law.
"The law was passed in 1994. It sounds like the administration of George H W Bush was the cause."
?
Clinton was elected in 1992 and sworn in in early 1993.
At first I thought maybe you were meaning the changeover in congressional majority. But the Republican majority in the house was elected in Novemeber 1994, but didn't take office until early 1995.
with representatives directly elected by the people of the world, divided into roughly equal population chunks.
This United Nations crap is so half-measures. I'm sick of it. I'd pay taxes to a real and democratic world government
capable of addressing global environmental issues effectively, and capable of reigning in the current power of
multi-national corporations to trample over local laws or to buy US congresspeople.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
I actually spent several summers working in Israel, and regularly visited the West Bank. Couldn't get access to Gaza though.
As for your questions: The West Bank and (especially) Gaza are effectively light-duty concentration camps. (Not dedicated, but high-density with low access to food, water, sanitation, or jobs.) Mass graves tend to draw attention. (And direct killing isn't the system being used here.) The ~10% of the Knesset (none of whom are Palestinian: they have to be Israeli) aren't a major political force of their own. And the random police checks, and the requirement that every Palestinian who wants to enter Israel (which means any of them who want to leave their home town for any reason...) register for travel papers, in person, every year, would be similar in effect.
Of course, a closer parallel would be with aparthied-era South Africa.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
As Samuel Huntington mentioned in "The Clash of Civilizations," our 222-year flirtation with internationalist liberal democracy is coming to an end and nationalism is rising.
http://www.pan-nationalism.org/
Futurist Traditionalism
"Also - can someone post a link to this supposed 1994 law?
It was part of a spending bill covering foreing relations for 1994 and 1995:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h103-2333
Section 410 is the part in question. It's described in the legislative summary at:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h103-2333&tab=summary
Text:
Section 410 -
Prohibits U.S. contributions to any affiliated organization of the United Nations or to the United Nations if they grant full membership as a state to a group that does not have internationally recognized attributes of statehood.
The final law is actually P.L. 103-246 Title IV US Code.
Digging down into convoluted listings of the US Code is best left to someone with more legal-researcher-fu than I. But that should help someone else get started.
If you want American money then don't do shit they don't like. They've lived apart before, I fail to see what the big deal is now. I can see the American POV as well. They've allowed a member state that isn't really a state yet. This puts up one more road block to full comprehensive peace treaty with Israel. This would be akin to allowing Taiwan into UNESCO.
Spain also became quite hostile to non-catholics after a fashion. Further, that "Golden age" was not only in Spain, but in northern Africa as well. Jews had to pay a special tax to muslim rulers, and in some parts of the middle east were slaves to muslims. While both cultures flourished, one clearly saw itself as superior to the other. Further, it wasn't all that great for the jews:
My heart is in the east, and I in the uttermost west--
How can I find savour in food? How shall it be sweet to me?
How shall I render my vows and my bonds, while yet
Zion lieth beneath the fetter of Edom, and I in Arab chains?
A light thing would it seem to me to leave all the good things of Spain --
Seeing how precious in mine eyes to behold the dust of the desolate sanctuary.
- by Yehuda Halevi, My Heart Is In the East, 1141, Translated from the Hebrew by Nina Salaman, 1924
Yes, jews were producing good works, and sometimes had positions of authority, but equality was well beyond their reach in Christian or Moorish Spain.
It's sort of like the Berlin wall, very few western leaders wanted it to come down and pressured the East to prevent it, as soon as it fell they furiously back peddled in an attempt to take the credit (or at least try to make it look as if that's what they had wanted all along).
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Except when we don't.
They are a plague. Fewer would be better. If Palestine provides a good excuse at least it's the first worthwhile accomplishment of Palestinian nationalism.
I dont support those who think that shooting people or blowing people up is acceptable but I do believe that the Palestinians have as much right to a state/homeland as the Israelis or anyone else.
If the Israelis had stuck to the borders set by the UN in the the late 1940s (and if Palestine had done likewise) this whole mess wouldn't have been such a big problem.
Your point is shit. And anyone that is critical of the Israelis, I suppose, is a bigot, no? GP is dead on. The Israelis would like nothing better than for the Palestineans to go away... they DO NOT WANT THEM in Israel. Someone needs tell Israel "tough shit... Its your problem, deal with it PROPERLY. These are PEOPLE. Treat them that way."
We all know that the US is going to do whatever Israel asks for, because they are scared of what Israel can do to the economy if they don't. As for the peace process, neither the US nor Israel are being truthful about it. They both believe that peace means Israel is the only country in the middle east. They are both supporting Israel genocidal expansionist policy.
while at it, world will be a better place! It might trickled down to US to.
Hah Hah! You dumped the English King for some Zionist Death Cult!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Don't assume your skewed views of the world have anything to do with reality. A Leftie distortion field is in effect.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Considering that UNESCO doesn't actually do anything in Israel, if they kicked Israel out the reaction would be a big yawn.
-- Support a free market in the field of government
Excellent! We can't have quasi this or quasi that, rampaging around the corridors of that tall building in the Big Apple (blessed be thy Jobsiness). As my cat is black and while, so should our foreign policy be. I just wish it would contain even more brushed aluminum. Now off to discover my cat and my husband's kipa. Sock Puppet! No, wait.. Socks!
Maybe this will be the first step in getting the UN (useless nations) OUT of the United States. Move them to Switzerland or some other "neutral" country, and take your stupid staff's with you.
Polling suggests Americans as a whole could give a rip about Palestinian issues, and support Israel if they think about it at all. Thus, the tune is increasingly called by Christian Zionists, to the point where Jewish Zionists have become the tail wagged by the dog. So it goes in Congress.
If/when the Palestinian Authority is admitted to the WIPO and WTO, it'll get really interesting. P.L. 101-246, Title IV (1990) and P.L. 103-236, Title IV (1994) can be amended, and a wide range of large contributors to Congressional races are probably already drafting suitable language, JIC. But, when push comes to shove, who will want it more: big money, or big religion?
Luke, help me take this mask off
So, are they Semites, or Jews, or Israelis, or Zionists, or what are they calling themselves this month?
I'm not anti-Semitic, but I am sure anti- towards Israel government acting like a "spoiled child" and just starting shit for no moral reason.
after Palestine vote.
I thought I'd been living in a bad dream and woken up to a rational and just world.
But no....
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
I'm just surprised that this administration actually carried through on this threat.
The Administration HAD to carry out the (congress') threat. If the Administration had failed to faithfully execute a law of the United States, they could be held to impeachment.
I mean, unless, you decide to shlt on the Constitution, like the previous administration did.
So what.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Well it took USA only 10 years to recognize Kosovo as a state, after bomb-bomb "liberation". Somehow 60 years is premature for Palestine. Land of the free (lies). Home of the brave (firefighters?). Stop invading other countries, and use that money to fix your own house. And don't give money to Israel or to anyone else. Then a Middle East peace treaty will be signed immediately.
Want the US to have respect and influence in the free world ? .. not to our displeasure at all ! :)
Internationalism is the key you so brilliantly flush
If the USA can finally be put in it's place we will be all the better for it.
Let guys like you pave the path to the total international irrelevance of the USA
And God bless America
I didn't expect someone in the comments to this story to refer to the Spanish Inquisition.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Hmmm let's look at the UN's history ... now let's look at the USA's history (including recent) ...
No I'm pretty sure I want the UN down, and the US standing. I Pray you never face a UN "fix" for a situation, in fact I pray I'll never do so either.
Thinking Israel is no better than all the other fuckers over there in the armpit of the world is hardly antisemitism.
When someone accuses you of being an antisemite for not choosing the side of Israel over the Palestinians, remind them that arabs are Semites too.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Whatever the USA says or does, it is already bankrupt and the power is in the East. I doubt the Chinese have any strong feelings either way in the Israel-Palestine conflict, but the Arabs still have the oil...
It takes a special kind of fool to equate what Israel does to the execution of six million Jews. The Palestinians are in no risk of becoming extinct. One does not have to approve of everything Israel does, but when you frame things the way you do, well, it just makes look either like an evil fucking bastard or a plain worthless brainless moron.
To be pedantic, the Jews were never in any real danger of extinction. There were enough in the US to keep that from happening. I'm not trying to lessen the impact of what happened, just pointing out the absurdity of claiming that people aren't suffering because they're not all going to die.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Then the US would have to leave (and lose its inappropriate veto, as inappropriate as China's or Russia's). What a stupid law: if the govt really wants to be in some org, they'll just ignore or (if need be) revoke the law. If they don't want to be in it, then they probably will leave it on their own. How is this law anything but a pretense that some govt can tie the foreign policy hands of all future govts.
Few international institutions have helped more to further US interests more than UN and UNESCO, in strictly political and economical terms. If they want to surrender one of the best tools of US soft power to the chinese, I'm sure they will happily accept that gift.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
an idealogue in action!
Tyrants and dictators love guys like you...
The biggest reason partisan politics in the US are so bad, is that they're not partisan enough. Two parties cannot possibly represent the views of a dozen people, let alone three hundred million. The artificial homogeneity in US government is what makes it so destructive. It's why "conservatives" have to vote against science and "progressives" have to vote for DRM. Not because there's any sense in those broad political views aligning with such peculiarities, but because their party allegiances require it.
Americans who call for an end to partisan politics, are The Problem With America. We need to accept, embrace, and work with the very real divisions we have, instead of pretending they don't exist or are unimportant.
This is definitely a pivot in history, we'll look back on this time and mark it as the beginning of a new world perspective.
The amount that is being withheld is US60 million.
Another world powers (or a coalition of like-minded states) could easily fill the gap and buy more influence.
China who wants to tote itself as a Modern country might quite like the PR.
One interesting vote is going to be the one that aims to recognize Palestine as a state. I would love to see the US withhold funding to the UNSC!! Imagine the glee on the faces of the Chinese and Russians when they realise that the US is diminishing its influence, just so Israel can continue to build illegal towns and dawdle on peace talks. I'm sure China and Russia would gladly pay the funding void!
Thats like saying that there is extraterrestrial life because we have sent astronauts to space.
In other words: insignificant counter example.
So yes, it might be mathematically correct that 92% of the middle eastern countries are hostile to jews and Israel, and that 92% != 100%. Does that make any difference?
Its also worth noting that Morocco is not a middle eastern country, its in Africa.
And Iran leaders have openly declared their wish to wipe Israel from the map, and then are working hard to develop nuclear weapons and missile technology, so somehow I don't think they qualify as a middle eastern country that is friendly to jews or Israel, even if there is some jewish population there.
Could be pretty interesting.
Strange how resistance , just like the French did in WW2 is now terrorism. .Seems like they forgot history,.
They use that work when it's convenient . The hell with the true facts :
Israel is occupying territories neither theirs to take nor theirs to keep.
It's convenient for them to use qualificatives like that to try to keep their guilt acting like they do
Imagine of China was to invade the USA , people who resist would be heroes to the USA but terrorists
to the Chinese. Same here. They dont have an army to try to fight back , they got people who throw rocks
at a country that has nuclear weapons. Fair fight ? no . Fair to call Palestinians terrorists ? Hell no !
They resist like every American would. Resisting is not terrorism it's patriotism. !
Best of luck to all Palestinians . They are the true heroes of the story. Israel is behaving towards them as
the Nazis were during WW2
Canada also pulled out of UNESCO after Palestine was voted in, so it wasn't just the US.
But Muslim citizens can vote and are even in parliament. Can you show me reciprocation in a Muslim state?
So vote Israel.
So you're saying the US doesn't agree with the culture of the advancement of Education, Science, Justice, the Rule of Law and Human Rights? Well, alright then.
Canada also signed ACTA. We're sort of not voting or acting for or towards our own interests, ideas or ideologies up here.
First, return all of the "refugees," making the population overwhelmingly Muslim, then have elections. After that, the Jews will be permanently reduced to second-class citizen status, will have no say in their government, and have to pay the Jizya.
If the Jews have the majority, the violence will simply continue, and it will continue until the Jews are either driven out (as they were in the other Muslim Arab states) or subjugated under a Muslim (Sharia) government.
The secular democratic state sounds fine, and that's what it is now, a democratic parliamentary system with universal suffrage. But you need to realize that the Muslims will accept nothing less than the entire area falling under a Muslim religious state.
Except that corporations are considered people, and have considerably more money to influence *WHATEVER* politicians get in (usually before they get in, campaign contributions and all).
One description of the law that I saw said that the US couldn't fund organizations that accepted The PLO as full members. If that was accurate then the US action is against both their treaty obligations and the law. As far as I can tell it wasn't the PLO that was admitted, it was The Palestinian Authority -- a completely different beast.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Butt-head Republican ideology trumps sanity.
It's no wonder the Middle East is still such a conflagration -- the US actively prevents any kind of normal relations there.
It's almost as if right-wing fundamentalists are trying to bring about Armageddon so they can all get Raptured up into Asshole Heaven.
I HATE right-wingers. They are so GOD-DAMN STUPID.
One day I feel I'm ahead of the wheel / the next it's rolling over me / I can get back on / I can get back on
The PLO law was from 1986 and was replaced by a 1994 law that made it about terrorist orgs in general, so that we wouldn't have to rewrite it every time the palestinians came up with a new terrorist org to be in charge.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
It's our money and we can do what we want, no? Hey Europe, you're great about saying that ./ shouldn't revolve around the US . . . put your euros in and we can deal with our own issues :) No? STFU and GBTW then.
Yeah, starting shit for no reason. Ignorant much, or just here?
Morocco's Jewish population: 1948, 250,000. Present, 3,000.
The only thing that protected Iran's Jewish community was the fact that it was not run as a Muslim state until the 1979 revolution, when most of the Jews fled. It largely missed the Muslim fervor to kill and expel the Jews in the wake of the creation of Israel.
Iran does have a Jewish member of the assembly, but that's only token. All religious minorities combined get five seats in the almost three hundred seat assembly. The all-Islamic Guardian Council gets to choose who can be in the assembly, and you can bet the number of minority seats will never rise above that token five.
The sad part is those token members have to violate their faith to enter the assembly, since they have to swear they are committed to the Iranian constitution, which, among other things, commits them to furthering the Islamic revolution.
The United States should stop supporting the racist regime of Israel. Israel has a long and foul history of brutal ethnic cleansing, racism, and genocide. Clearly the United States is totally isolated in the world, as being the only supporter the regime in Tel Aviv. Why isn't this now absolutely clear to those American racist sympathisers.
Whatever us westerners might think on the primitive relgions of the middle east, and the various petty groups of small minded religious thugs, we have to recognise the Palestinian right to return to their homeland, and the right of every Palestinian, and every descendant of a Palestinian, to be adequetely compensated for each day of occupation, fully at the expense of the occupiers.
The entire Palestinian population did not just wake up one morning, decide to leave everything behind, and head for a refugee camp, or over the border into other countries. They were clearly ethnically cleansed. Why can't American supporters of racism seem to understand this? What would all the American supporters of ethnic cleansing do if this happened to them in the United States. Would you fight back?
I think when the UN supports terror and terrorist groups as it regularly does, we should ask ourselves if we should be funding such an organization.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
The whole act of declaring a state is an act of political suicide.
It started off as the Palestinian Authority trying to press Israel into concessions, with the threat of unilaterally declaring statehood, but as Israel did not budge - they kept going, adamant on showing they were not bluffing. Despite being urged against doing so by all their friends, even by an expert advisory report requested by the very same Palestinian government.
So now they have alienated the US administration too. The same Obama administration which hasn't shied away from dropping support for old pal regimes, and was their friend. The same Obama administration that was initially very keen on pressing Israel. Not anymore.
Did that stop them? no. They went ahead and now politically suicide-bomb the UN, using the automatic UN majority for Islamic states. Thus alienating their friends even further.
What the hell does an education & science committee have to do with declaring new states?
Many here would agree that WIPO promulgates everything that is bad (and worse) about IP law in the USA abroad. Let's all get behind getting the Palestinians into WIPO. Beside the fact that a) it's discriminatory in the extreme to try to keep them out, and b) a law stipulating non-participation in a group based on the participation of others in it is simply asinine, it would teach our short-sighted, self-interested overlords a lesson. They surely won't learn it, but still.
...A national policy both practical and fun!
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
With the USA dollars running away from UNESCO, one wonders whether Obama-Kun has chopped off his dick ... in order to be re-erected to USA President.
How many virgins well be needed to re-erect Obama's dick? How many virgins will be killed for Obama's dick to re-erect?
Dick Chaney is Master of Ceremonies for the DC Specticle to be carried on all National Networks under threat of death by Obama.
Sig Hail.
I like that law from 94. I hope to see The United States of North America out of every UN institution and likewise with the other countries that have veto power. Then the UN could become democratic and do something good for the world, instead of centralizing power over the world to a few countries. On that account, who the fuck gave the UN the right to sell the North Pole? It belongs to Santa and Santa wants to keep it like it is.
First of all, your point does not actually contradict mine. Why does the UN describe the US as non-free ? Simple: the UN is one vote per member, and the vast majority of it's members have the troublesome (for them) combo of being non-free, have a population that wants more freedom than they have, and are governments that are not capable of defending against the US for even a few weeks.
The UN council is filled with Gadhaffis, I assume you do not find it all that hard to understand that the US just lost popularity with them in the past few months ? Needless to say, state media of all these countries have reviewed their views of the US accordingly. Read Xinhua every now and then, and please remember that compared to the press of, say Iran or Bolivia they are pretty nice and fair in their coverage of the US. In Iran's national press you read about failed experiments on babies by the US military biweekly.
As for your point, the US may be corrupt, partially corrupt, or not corrupt at all. What measures it's "corruptness" is how much it goes against the interest of the people it governs. Regardless of that fact, the following holds :
People in China - see how the US is corrupted "somewhat" - versus their own government which is 100% corrupt by definition*
People in Northern African countries - see how the US is corrupted "somewhat" - versus their own government which is 100% corrupt by definition
People in most of Asia - ditto
Southern America - ditto (with a few large exceptions)
Most of Africa - ditto
Russia - ditto
* obviously this means that the government does not represent the interests of the people they're governing - at all. Also known as the democratic standard
There are 3 democratic countries with relatively large populations - the US, the EU, and India. Democracy represents about 1.5-2 billion people worldwide, depending on where your standard is (e.g. you could easily make the point that India lacks several essential freedoms that Americans have, you could even make a decent point that the EU is not a free democratic nation (because there is no separation between powers - both the legislature (which is the commission, not parliament, despite the name) and the executive powers lie in the commission. The justice has at least a modicum of independence, but not really since the same people that run the commission elect judges (who need to get re-elected every 6 years by -the same people as- the commission).
Other governments are either tiny, or are not democratic at all.
You know what that means ? At the very least 60% of people alive today do not live in a democracy. If you are being pedantic, excluding India will bring that up to 80%, excluding the EU for the really pedantic brings the number over 90%.
So "the US government has been corrupted" - you can make that argument. But it's not nearly as bad as the governments 60-90% of people live under. Americans are -at the very least- amongst the 10% most free people on this planet by the standard of participation in their own government - and that's assuming the US government has been corrupted. If it hasn't, Americans are the most free 4% of this planet.