UN Assembly Demands Israel Drop Threat to Arafat

[DuctapeFatwa]

Circumventing a U.S. veto in the Security Council, the U.N. General Assembly demanded on Friday that Israel drop its threat to deport or harm Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

The vote in the assembly was a lopsided 133 to 4, with 15 abstentions, on a resolution demanding that Israel not carry out a plan to "remove" the Palestinian leader..

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3476122

[ewagner]

1. Lemme guess

The United States was one of the fifteen abstentions?

[bluesoul]

2. One of 4

Nope, even worse, one of those 4 voting against! Blank card for assasination? :thumbsdown:

[thebeaglehaslanded]

3. Don't it make you proud to be a 'Merican!

Let's endorse political assasination as the way to solve international problems. Sheesh!

[ewagner]

10. This should be good!

I'm anxious to see how Bush and Negroponte weasel out of this......

If you're a connieseur of bullshit, you're in for a feast!

(note: damn I wish there was a spell checker in these posts!)

[Aidoneus]

5. hm..

US, Israel, Micronesia, and who?

[Evil_Dewers]

7. the Marshall Islands...

LMAO!

[forgethell]

4. It's too bad

the General Assembly doesn't have the legal power of a high school student government.

[htuttle]

6. I'm not sure that's entirely true

I think that it was ultimately a General Assembly vote that authorized UN involvement in the Korean War (since China, obviously, was going to veto anything on the Security Council level).

I'm not sure what the weight of this particular resolution is, but there are mechanisms available for the General Assembly to basically bypass the Security Council (if it's deadlocked, etc...).

[forgethell]

11. Nope

China was Tqiwan in those days. Russia walked out of the Security Council and the US took its chance. General Assembly has NO legal authority and damn little moral authority.

[htuttle]

12. What?

Hmm...China was still China back then, and it was a Communist China representitive that signed the UN charter, but oddly enough, it was Taiwan that got China's seat, originally.

You're right in that it was the Russian (not Chinese) veto that stopped the Security Council resolution on Korea, but the way the resolution was finally passed was via a 'United for Peace' vote in the General Assembly:

Here:

After North Korea invaded South Korea, the United States was unable to obtain Security Council approval for a U.S.-led military operation to invade North Korea, because of the Soviet veto. Thus, Secretary of State Dean Acheson secured the passage of the Uniting for Peace resolution.

The Uniting for Peace Resolution has been employed ten times since its enactment. In 1956, it was used by the United States when Britain and France attacked the Suez Canal after Egypt nationalized the canal. In the face of Security Council vetoes by Britain and France, the U.S. convinced the General Assembly to call for a cease-fire. Britain and France withdrew from the canal a week later.

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20030327_cohn.html

I might be wrong in this, since I wasn't born until a few years after the Korean war ended, but this is how I've always understood the UN actions on the Korean war took place.

However, I'm not sure how one could view the General Assembly as devoid of 'moral authority'. It's the most representative body on the planet -- every country gets a vote. Maybe you're just unhappy about how the planet views things?

[sinkingfeeling]

8. How many UN resolutions against Israel have been passed?

I believe there have been about 68 Security Council resolutions and nearly 450 General Assembly condemning Israel's actions since 1948.

[ewagner]

9. IIRC

There have been more than 30 demanding they leave the occupied territories......

[LastDemInIdaho]

15. And how many against Arafat to round up his hamas type terrorists?

Moral authority indeed.

[Violet_Crumble]

23. Since when has Hamas belonged to Arafat?

They hate him and the PA, and the feeling is mutual. This fact's been pointed out to you before, so why are you repeating the same stuff here?

Violet...

[MGKrebs]

13. The UN is only as good as it's members let it be.

Just like any democracy. We are supposed to WANT it to work. The UN is the ALTERNATIVE to "might makes right". If the UN had the power to enforce it's rules, it would become a super-superpower that would also have the power to dominate the world with no possible opposition.

[LastDemInIdaho]

14. Did they happen to suggest that Arafat force hamas to stop suicide bombers

Or did they decide to turn another blind eye to the reality that innocent Israelis are getting blown to hell by members of Arafat's neighborhood?

Perhaps Israel should retract and condemn suggesting Arafat should go and let some murderous thugs move in and do the killing/removal just like Arafat does.

[pschoeb]

16. Actually the resolution does condemn terrorism as well

"It would also have the Assembly reiterate its demand for the complete cessation of all acts of violence, including acts of terrorism, provocation, incitement and destruction."

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/ga10152.p2.doc.htm

The UN has condemned terrorism against Israel on many occasions.

How can Arafat stop Hamas, when Israel has totally dismantled the PA infrastructure? I'd like to see them do invetigations, oh wait, we can't leave the building right now because were under curfew, oh wait we can't get to the location we need to because we have to wait an hour at this stupid checkpoint. Also since Isreal destroyed many of PA's prisons, where are they going to lock them up.

Patrick Schoeb

[LastDemInIdaho]

17. Terrorism is not a footnote

It is the root cause of all the troubles in this conflict. The only headlines I see coming out of the UN are against Israel. Perhaps it's the media playing down the pro-Israel chatter from the UN but I doubt it.

[Eloriel]

19. Maybe it's a little thing called balance

Or do you really believe Israel under Sharon is blameless?

Ever hear of Rachel Corrie? Do you know what she was trying to stop when she was bulldozed to death? The bulldozing of Palestinian homes. If that ain't terrorism I don't know what is.

Israel is like a schoolyard bully: provoke a fight, and then cry victim.

BOTH sides are to blame, but I'm sick of the Israel half of the blame not getting levied at all.

Eloriel

[LastDemInIdaho]

20. what she was trying to stop when she was bulldozed?

A tunnel for smuggling weapons to kill Jew with perhaps?

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6661458%255E401,00.html

Soldiers cleared of activist death
From correspondents in Jerusalem

ISRAEL'S military prosecutor has exonerated Israeli soldiers in the March death of an American peace activist, the army said today, refuting eyewitness claims that the woman was in the line of sight of the bulldozer driver who buried her alive in the Gaza Strip.

Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death on March 16 while trying to block the demolition of the house of a doctor in the Rafah refugee camp by standing in front of the army bulldozer. The army said the home was being destroyed in an effort to block arms smuggling.

"Rachel Corrie was injured as a result of earth and building material falling on her when she tried to climb on a pile of earth while work was being carried out by an armoured Israel Defense Forces bulldozer," the army said in a statement.

"The crew of the armoured bulldozer did not see Miss Corrie, who was standing behind a pile of earth, nor could they have seen or heard her."

On April 30, two Britons with loose ties to International Solidarity Movement carried out a suicide bombing at a bar in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. She was trying to stop a family home from being destroyed...

Just because the IDF tries to claim something doesn't make it true. The IDF have lied about many other things, and seems to think that if they label someone a terrorist or say that homes have to be destroyed to stop terrorism people will believe them faithfully. Unfortunately for them only the most gullible and the most ignorant amongst us do...

Violet...

[pschoeb]

24. I guess it's lucky that Britain just didn't bulldoze

all those homes they suspected of being involved in arms smuggling during the Palestine Mandate, which were quite a few. This claim, by the way, is an IDF claim, and hardly merits proof.

I also liked this bull* line in the story

On April 30, two Britons with loose ties to International Solidarity Movement carried out a suicide bombing at a bar in Tel Aviv, killing three Israelis.

The connection to the ISM is they entered ISM's office, they were not
ISM members nor did the ISM know them, there is no real security at the ISM office so the public is not really barred from entering. By the same standards used to say these guys were "loosly" connected to the ISM, the author could have said they were loosly connected to Israel, as Israel had let them into the country(and should have actually screened them, so maybe they would have a stronger "connection" to Israel than the ISM).

Patrick Schoeb

[pschoeb]

21. It's the US media wanting to make the UN seem irrelevant

and anti-Israel, so that ultra mega super deluxe pro-Israelis can shout about how UN resolutions against Israel are unimportant.

Not only has the UN condemned terrorist attacks against Israel, there are actually a whole set of anti-terror conventions.

Every time there is a suicide bombing, Kofi Annan comes out and condemns it in no uncertain terms.

You will also notice that the UN doesn't write resolutions condemning Basque seperatist bombing, IRA bombings, Tamil Tiger bombings, PKK bombings. Because none of these are done by countries, and member country interactions are what the UN is setup to regulate.

Palestine is not a country and the O.T. is de facto controlled by Israel. What could the UN do to the O.T. that isn't already done by Israel. Sanctions, pretty much happening, threaten force, already done by Israel, withold autonomy, already done by Israel, threaten invasion, already done by Israel, remove UN member status, doesn't have it. Whats the point of writing a resolution that the UN has no jurisdiction to enforce anyways and are already brutally enforced by Israel.

You didn't adress my other points about how the PA is supposed to stop Hamas, or Israel's massive use of landmines in another country.

Also it's lucky for Israel that Britain didn't use Israel's standards in determining when to leave Palestine and let Israel exist. Britain didn't say, we are not leaving Palestine until the Haganah crushes the terrorist groups Stern Gang and Irgun (and the Haganah and the Stern Gang and Irgun were more closely intertwined than the PA and Hamas). What's more, when Britain put some Jewish communities under some super trivial curfews compared to what goes on in the O.T., they all complained as if Britain was the worst oppressor ever, I guess Israel just likes to have that nice double standard.

Terrorism is not the root cause in the conflict, it is one of the symptoms.

Patrick Schoeb

[StopThief]

18. A general assembly resolution and $1.00. . . . .

will get you a cup of coffee.

Next.