Jeff Halper, Information Clearing House, 25 Feb 2011
Last Friday’s vote in the UN in which the US refused to follow the other 14 members of the Security Council in condemning Israel’s ongoing settlement project – including, it should be noted, such traditionally pro-Israel stalwarts as Britain, France and even Germany and India (for whom Israel is the #2 supplier of arms, as it is with China) – revealed what international isolation into which the US has fallen. Without being pollyannish over the human rights records of the other members of the Security Council, human rights does, nevertheless, motivate the foreign policy of many countries of the world, if only because to be seen respecting human rights has become a standard of national legitimacy. Israel’s blatant violations of international law threaten the consensus upon which the international order rests, even if it is upheld in the breech.
The Security Council vote show that this is not true for the United States, whose perceived cultural and legal exceptionalism rests upon a rapidly eroding economic and military hegemony. The very message of the American vote – that we do not see ourselves subject to international law and human rights; we set the policies and rules, not the UN or international courts – sends a chill down the spine of people everywhere, especially those, such as the peoples uprising in the Middle East or those in Burma, the Congo, China and in American prisons, who cannot revolt yet hold out hope that struggles for human rights will eventually each them.
Peace and Justice Post 
February 28, 2011 at 4:24 pm |
[…] On December 28, 2009, Vanunu was arrested/HARASSED once again, this time just for meeting with his Norwegian girlfriend, Dr. Kristin Joachimsen, a scholar and an associate professor of Additionally on this topic you can read: http://ekonomiislami.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/ekonomi-syariah-dan-outlook-2011/ On the same topic: http://cumbriansky.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/seven-years-on-mars-on-mars-on-mars/ Related to this you can read: http://cyborgfang.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/%E5%8F%AA%E6%9C%89%E5%9C%A8%E6%9D%A5%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%8A%E7%9A%84%E6%97%B6%E5%80%99%E6%89%8D%E6%83%B3%E5%86%99%E5%8D%9A%E5%90%A7/ On the same topic: http://motoringconbrio.com/2011/01/14/guest-contributor-royce-hong-on-his-1967-lotus-elan-s3/ On the same topic: http://myiyagi.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/wsk-sharing-intangible-heritage-of-korea-with-the-world/ For more on this read: http://callmehollywood.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/mordechai-e-apresentado-em-novo-cartaz-de-red-state/ For more on this topic you can read: http://westofmiddle.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/im-famous/ Additionally you can look at this related post: http://mxmrshll.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/buenos-aires/ Anyone can also check out this related post: https://sudhan.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/working-around-america-a-new-strategy-on-israelpalestine/ […]
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