Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Furious! The Americans were furious madmen Wednesday after the Russian-Chinese double veto that blocked a resolution against Syria. In context, the question is not whether the veto was legitimate or if the Syrian regime deserved sanctions. It was, above all, the Americans’ abuse and misuse of the veto that was, paradoxically, brought up. The Americans were frustrated by the turn of events and haven’t failed to make their discontent known.

What about the Palestinians who, for the past six decades, have endured some 50 American vetoes that have either killed their hopes for a rehabilitated Palestinian state or given impunity to Israel for the crimes it has perpetrated against the Palestinian people. Faced with Russia and China’s double veto, the Americans must have felt the same way the Palestinians have since the humiliation of the British and American decision to provide the Jews with a “homeland,” much to the detriment of other people.

What the Brits and the Yanks began, Israel continues steadfastly: the capture and monopoly of all of Palestine. The United States, after patching together a comedy of ceaseless negotiations, knows this. No one, unless they are crazy or perverse, could believe that a people would be obliged to negotiate while the occupying powers confiscate their lands. And yet, that is exactly what the Americans — who do nothing to condemn or stop the Israeli colonization — demand.

On the other hand, they threaten to use their veto to block Palestine’s application for U.N. membership. We are back to the concept of “do as I say, not as I do.” Either you are powerful or you are not! Right? In that case, what does the Charter of the U.N. mean when a country that has all the power unilaterally decides the fate of a people and a nation? In 1947, the United States used pressure, threats and blackmail to force the more reluctant countries to vote for the partition of Palestine. In 2011, using the same methods, Washington wishes to dissuade the non-permanent members of the Security Council from voting for Palestine’s admission to the U.N.

Nothing can explain this harassment; it is not explained and it cannot be explained. Criticizing Moscow and Beijing, the American ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, did not mince her words: “The United States is outraged that this Council has utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge and a growing threat to regional peace and security,” (that of Syrian President Bachar al-Assad). Big words again!

The Security Council’s responsibility. Let’s talk about that: Here’s a council that has been subjected to the American diktat for years, reduced to obeying the orders imposed upon it by the White House’s unilateral reading of international law and its self-serving interpretation of the U.N. Charter, and now this council is supposed to “assume” its responsibilities. And yet it was the U.S. who ridiculed the Security Council by doing without its consent for the Iraq invasion in 2003.

Let’s take note of this American obstinacy: Since 1947, the U.S. has used its veto 51 times in Israel’s favor, and threatens to use it again against Palestine. How can America claim to protect the Arab people in Syria, or to support the Arab revolutions, while they tolerate Israel’s barbaric persecution of the Arab people in Palestine? How can they claim to be just while using and abusing the rights of their status as a permanent member of the Security Council? In economics, that’s called an abuse of dominant position and it is punishable by law. Who will punish the United States for turning the U.N. into their plaything?