You can write it in Basic:
10 Sit all members
20 If you = poor dictatorship
30 Then blame all your woes on the west and take solace in the international community’s willingness to ignore the subjugation of your people
40 Else nod along
50 pass resolution condemning Israel
Today the UN General Assembly lived up to it’s favourite pastime - passing resolutions bashing everyone’s favourite whipping boy, the state of Israel.
The resolution called for Israel to tear down the security wall in light of the ICJ’s recent ruling.
My own thoughts on the matter are as follows - the Israeli High Court had it right, the wall’s fault is in making the lives of Palestinian people egregiously difficult and therefore where it can be corrected to correct such faults it should be.
However the general gist of a lot of the opposition to the wall is quite simply that it’s a wall and that Israel’s building it - more importantly and perhaps cynically a lot of people oppose it because it’s working so damn well.
As the Israeli Ambassador noted;
“It is simply outrageous to respond with such vigour to a measure that saves lives and responds with such casual indifference and apathy to the ongoing campaign of Palestinian terrorism that takes lives,” he said.
He’s right there. Peace and security are the number one concerns of any nation, and to be honest it would be negligent to pursue any other path than one which strives to achieve those aims.
If there were a way to achieve such aims through negotiation at this time then Israel would pursue them, however no such means exist and they will not exist until such time as the terrorist organizations given free rein in Palestinian territories are destroyed or disbanded.
The simple fact of the matter is that pulling down the wall would result in the death of Israelis, as opposed to the massive inconveniencing of many Palestinians. Of that there can be no doubt. Any action by a government which would absolutely and certainly result in the murder of their civilians is utterly unacceptable and it is downright spurious to demand it of Israel.
If that makes me a zionist neo-con bastard then so be it.
(update: Even better, more from the BBC News article:
The Palestinian Authority has said it will delay pushing for a Security Council resolution until after the US presidential elections in November
Lol, wishful thinking guys. Kerry might not be Dubya, but I can’t see him caving on this matter.)
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at July 21, 2004 03:49 AM | TrackBack