Israel’s Crimes against Humanity Will End Just As Haley's Tenure Ended

By Robert Fantina
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The United States, under the bizarre leadership of its unhinged and unstable president, Donald Trump, has finally removed the facade of any semblance of ‘balance’ in the Palestine-Israel conflict. For decades, the U.S. has supported Israel’s crimes and allowed them to happen with complete impunity. This, as its spokespeople hypocritically proclaimed the goal of a two-state solution, all the while supporting Israeli activities designed to prevent any solution other than the complete annihilation of Palestine. But with Trump, the mask is off, and the U.S. is seen as a puppet and supporter of brutal Zionism.

This has always been evident in the United Nations, where the U.S., using its veto power in the Security Council, prevents almost any repercussions to Israel for its appalling violations of international law, human rights and common decency. Oh, here and there we saw an occasional abstention, allowing a resolution to pass, but this was rare. With the rise of Trump, and his appointment of the ignorant and clown-like Nikki Haley, the fact that the U.S. is more concerned with pleasing Israel than with adhering to international law could not be more obvious.

This was seen again on December 6, when the U.S. submitted a resolution to the General Assembly to condemn Hamas, for “repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and for inciting violence, thereby putting civilians at risk”, among other reasons. While the resolution achieved a majority, it did not approach the two-thirds required for passage. Once again, the U.S. was humiliated on the world stage.

We will do something that the hapless Ms. Haley has neglected to do throughout her brief career at the United Nations: we will look at the facts.

She charges that Hamas repeatedly fires rockets into Israel. Perhaps she is unaware that an occupied people have the right under international law to resist the occupation in any way possible; nowhere are rockets excluded.

And let’s consider these ‘rockets’ for a moment. Norman Finkelstein, son of Holocaust survivors and an outspoken critic of Israeli apartheid and all that that means, including the occupation of the West Bank, blockade of Gaza and Israeli crimes in Jerusalem, calls those rockets that so intimidate Haley ‘enhanced fireworks’. He says both sides, Palestine and Israel, benefit by calling them rockets. In Palestine, it gives the Palestinian people the idea that someone, at least, is doing something to try to help them. Israel calls them rockets because doing so enables people like Haley to demand more military and financial aid and protection for Israel.

One must recall that in the summer of 2014, Israel carpet-bombed the Gaza Strip daily for nearly two full months. During this bombing, hospitals, press vehicles, mosques, United Nations refugee centers and residential neighborhoods were all targeted, all in violation of international law. During less than 60 days that summer, Israeli terrorists launched more rockets into Gaza than Gaza had launched into Israel in the previous fourteen years. Why did Haley not sponsor a resolution against Israel for repeatedly firing rockets into Palestine, thereby putting civilians at risk?

Since 2000, 134 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians. Yes, this is tragic. However, since 2000, at least 2,167 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis. The total death toll in that time is 1,242 Israelis and more than 9, 500 Palestinians. Shouldn’t Israel be condemned for putting civilians at risk?

It must also be remembered that Palestine has no army, no navy and no air force, while Israel has one of the most powerful military systems in the world, financed and backed by the world’s most powerful, the U.S. The Gaza Strip is blockaded by land, sea and air by Israel, with the criminal assistance of Egypt. The West Bank is occupied by IDF terrorists and over half a million illegal settlers who routinely commit crimes, up to and including murder, against Palestinians while the IDF looks the other way. Yet if a Palestinian teen dares to throw a stone at a tank, perhaps after seeing a family member killed, or watching his or her house demolished to make room for a new, illegal, Israeli-only settlement, he or she can be arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in an Israeli prison. Does Haley not have any objections to these behaviors?

Haley will leave her post at the U.N. at the end of the year; perhaps she grew tired of being constantly embarrassed there. On June 1, the U.S. vetoed a resolution submitted by Kuwait, condemning Israel violence in Gaza, and providing security measures for the Palestinians. After that vote, Haley submitted a U.S. resolution condemning Hamas for the violence that had erupted with the weekly ‘Right of Return’ marches, a patently nonsensical position. Video of the U.S. ambassador walking around the hall begging for votes has been widely viewed. However, her efforts were all for naught: for what is believed to be the first time in the history of the United Nations, a resolution in the Security Council only received one vote in favor, and that was by the U.S., the nation that submitted it.

Following that vote, Danny Dannon, the Israeli envoy to the United Nations, made a statement that this writer agrees with:  “Peace and stability will come to our region only when the international community is brave enough to call out the terrorists by name.” Yes, once the international community recognizes that the IDF, illegal settlers, all Zionists and members of the Israeli government are all terrorists, and does what is necessary to stop their hateful, criminal activities, peace and stability will indeed come to the region. The U.S.’s ridiculous actions at the United Nations prevent the official recognition of Israel’s crimes, but world governments, and, increasingly, the world population sees them.

Israel’s crimes against humanity will end; the people of Palestine will, one day, enjoy the basic freedoms and human rights that all people are inherently deserving of. This will not be because of any efforts of the United States; it is other governments, and people around the world, who will demand this.  It cannot happen soon enough for the suffering people of Palestine.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

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