At the Eleventh Hour:

UN Didn't Work Its Heart Out in a Good Cause

Rasa - We all know how the United Nations always tells the Palestinians everything is going to be fine, just to make them feel better. Well, the world body has just told them everything is going to be fine:

News ID: 426002

Date: 23 December 2016 - 22:23

RNA - That is, after Egypt postponed a UN Security Council vote on a resolution demanding an end to the illegal Israeli settlement building!

True, Cairo acted under pressure from Israel and to avoid alienating US President-elect Donald Trump. But that's not the point here. The point is, Cairo knew from day one that there would be pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv, particularly from Trump. Cairo also knew that veto by Washington was in the offing, but still went ahead with the plan. Perhaps, this was to get some incentives from Washington. Again, that's not important at all.

It has to be this: Once wasted, you cannot get it back. The wasted draft resolution would have required Israel to cease all settlement activities in occupied territories; such settlements are widely considered illegal under international law; and a vote would have forced US President Barack Obama to decide in his last month in office whether to shield Israel with a veto, or abstain to register criticism of the building on occupied land that the Palestinians want for a state.

That the White House did not issue a statement is not surprising. It’s yet another blank check for the Zionist regime to continue to transform the physical and demographic landscape of occupied Palestinian territories towards an illegal “Jewish state”. After all, the United Nations is not doing anything about it either, why should the US do?

Besides, after Egypt’s decision to postpone the draft resolution, President-elect Donald went on Facebook and Twitter to back Benjamin Netanyahu, saying, "The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed.”

Tragic enough, all this and more signals no change in US policy toward Israel and its apartheid regime, much less at the UN to make major moves on Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Quite the contrary, the international civil society prefers to sit on its hands and look the other way while the usurper regime and international crooks change the demographic makeup of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.

Thanks to this latest Egyptian theatrics, Israel is still free to take other measures as well, including revocation of residency rights, changing Arab into Jewish zones, construction of the West Bank separation wall, takeover of Palestinian homes by illegal settlers – and Western businesses, demolition of Palestinian homes, and replacing Arabic place names with Hebrew names.

In the prevailing environment, we are expected to believe that the United Nations is angry, criticizing Israel for all these wrongs.  We are also expected to believe that it is the UN’s view that all legislative and administrative measures, which have altered or aim to alter the character, legal status and demographic composition of Al-Quds, are "null and void." But that's for show. The UN won't take any decisive step. Worse still, the United States will veto its resolutions critical of Israel.

The same could be said about the European Union. Its member states always say Israeli actions and demolitions are illegal, serve no obvious purpose, have severe humanitarian effects, and fuel bitterness and extremism. But then the international crooks never bother to put their words into action.

Instead, they happily set up new international business branches  in the illegal settlement areas to pave the way for complete  Judaization of Palestine. Little wonder the long-suffering people of Palestine know not of the future, and cannot plan for it much.

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