US Wallet Is Like an Onion; Opening It Will Make Everyone Cry

Rasa - On Thursday, December 21, US Envoy to the UN Nikki Haley proved to the whole world, even the United Nations, that the US wallet is like an onion; opening it will make everyone cry.

News ID: 435478

Date: 25 December 2017 - 01:37

RNA - Little did she realize that it does not matter how long the US is spending on others, how much money it has spent, or how much attention it has received. It is the amount of positive vibration the US has radiated in the world that matters:

As long anticipated, the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday delivered a stunning rebuke of President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem Al-Quds as Israel's capital, casting an overwhelming vote condemning the move and calling on the US to withdraw the decision. The final vote count in favour of the resolution was 128. Nine countries opposed the resolution while 35 abstained. The resolution – essentially a formal statement of a UN opinion – is not legally binding. But it represents a symbolic condemnation of Trump's decision and exerts political pressure on him to reverse the move.

This is important from another angle. Prior to the vote, Haley wrote her fellow ambassadors to say that she and Trump will be watching as ballots are cast on the General Assembly draft resolution to reject the American decision – and that he will be taking their votes personally. President Trump himself also stepped forward to endorse Haley's threat, and threatened a day earlier to eliminate financial aid to UN members who would vote against his decision.

Ultimately, Trump’s threats to defund all foreign aid recipients who voted against the US at the UN General Assembly on the Al-Quds question had little to no impact, with the vote ending in an embarrassingly high defeat for Washington. The fact is that materially every major recipient of US aid, except obviously for Israel, either voted against the US, or in a few rare cases, abstained. This included “yes” votes from the entire Muslim world, including major US aid recipients like Jordan, Egypt, and Afghanistan. Voting with the US were mostly sparsely populated micro-nations, along with Guatemala and Honduras.

The reality of the situation is that the US cannot go on forever threatening the entire world, particularly its aid recipients. When defeat comes, the bully-boy member of the UN Security Council is better off accepting it as a signal that its pro-Israel plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward the coveted goal of the international community, which is recognition of Palestinian rights to their land, to their freedom, and to their self-determination.

No doubt the most recent evidence of the Trump administration’s slavish deference to the wishes of the hard-line Israeli regime was its decision to recognize Jerusalem Al-Quds as the capital of Israel and relocate the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv. This, predictably, sparked a chorus of protest from Muslim-majority nations in the region, as well as a round of street protests in Palestine.

In her profound ignorance of the world, and the ease with which she lies, Haley must be ranked as one of the most dangerous members of the Trump administration, perhaps second only to the president himself. That Haley has emerged as one of the administration’s principal hard-liners on Palestine is no surprise, given her close ties to the casino mogul and pro-Israel stalwart Sheldon Adelson, who between May and June, 2016, contributed $250,000 to Haley’s 527 political organization, A Great Day.

Which brings us to the conclusion that the great enemy of freedom in this world is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of nations and the local economies of household, neighbourhood, and community - and so destroys democracy and international law, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.

Haley’s speech at the UNGA prior to the vote was just one part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to increase tensions between the Palestinians and the Israelis while at the same time bringing American Middle East policy even more in line with the wishes of Tel Aviv.

Unlike what the Trump White House would like to suggest, the US aid recipients don’t think US money does everything and they are not going to end up doing everything for US money. By ignoring Trump’s threats, they showed that money can't buy vote for the US if the US shops in the wrong places.

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