" nine states – including the United States and Israel –voted against the resolution. The other countries which supported Washington were Togo, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Marshall Islands, Guatemala and Honduras." Guardian
————-
(irony alert) So, Perfidious Albion has bitten the hand that fed them. That's right isn't it? No? What about all that Spam we sent them when they ran out of crumpets? What about that? Why would Palau have voted on our side? Ah, there must be some pot of Golden Grickels from which they sup, maybe something about a Jack London memorial pearl fishery or, something. (end of irony)
Nikki Haley, is a city girl flower of South Carolina politics. Do you suppose that she may be learning that THE WORLD is harder to bully than a bunch of "good ole boys" who like to put Rebel flag decals on their pick-up trucks?
And then, there are the related spectacles of the Israeli UN ambassador sneering just now on the TeeVee at THE WORLD whilst Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Turkey and Egypt voted for the resolution. I guess that means that they don't need the money badly enough to roll over when ordered.
There will be no peace for Israel. pl
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/21/united-nations-un-vote-donald-trump-jerusalem-israel
This is a serious foreign policy blunder, and looks like no one else can be blamed for it other than Pres. Trump.
Nauru is a superpower of the bird poop industry.
They lost a ton of money in a Producers like scam involving a musical about Leonardo da Vinci.
I’m sorry, but as a Nauru fan, and one of many I’m sure, I’m disappointed. I’d like to point out that the Nauru economy was once based largely on mining a thick layer of bird shit that had built up over the years. Since the bird shit was completely strip mined, the Nauru economy pivoted to make the country a world leader in the illegal download and money laundering industries. Being an environmental catastrophe, it has little in the way of fauna, but it does have a thriving population of mice and rats, which were transmitted there by boats that carried away all the bird shit. It is also one of the top countries in the world by body mass index. It is one tenth the size of Lichtenstein and has less than 10,000 citizens. With friends like that, who needs the UK.
shepherd
Perhaps they are hoping to be annexed by the US? pl
Nah.
Israelis know there is no peace to be had, Muslims and their governments are too weak, disorganized and incompetent to effectively wage war against Israel to recalim Al Quds – and know it too – and Trump knowd that they know that too. So he delivers on another one of his promises to those who elected him while such empty gestures at UN are made2
There’s lotsa ways to exercise power. Public petulance isn’t one of the more clever ones. Will this line-in-the-sand be as impressive to pundits as Obama’s? Who’s lining up to be an apologist? It’s one thing to bow to Bibi, quite another to threaten everyone else on the planet & making a big show of it.
Hard for me to proud of the country at times like this.
Poor Nauru.
Colonized and all its phosphate taken.
Population decreasing, only 11,000 people left.
90% unemployment, and 95% of those employed work for government.
Earned some $ and employment for awhile by accepting refugees that Australia refused to allow to immigrate.
Made some money by allowing money laundering for awhile.
Made some money for awhile by alternately recognizing Taiwan and China.
Highest rate of obesity and type 2 diabetes on earth.
So yes, I think Nauru government could be influenced to vote at UN anyway on anything.
Never been there, Makatea was bad enough.
“So, Perfidious Albion has bitten the hand that fed them. That’s right isn’t it?”
Actually that’s not irony (I presume stimulated by my recent comment on a previous thread). Britain has indeed sunk so low over the Brexit business that they are begging help from everybody. I was quite surprised that their historic policy was not nixed by Downing St.
But then, Britain is not in realist mode at the moment. The extremist ultras are in power. Or rather the situation is conflicted, and May cannot say no to them.
By the way, I don’t believe Netanyahu wants peace. It would involve Israel making concessions. I rather liked Avi Shlaim’s argument in “The Iron Wall” that they liked the first part of Jabotinsky’s idea that Israel should construct an Iron Wall against the Arabs, but they never accepted the second part that they should use the Iron Wall to make a permanent peace. Of course, permanent war implies defeat in the end, when the power fails.
The Russian press refers to Niki Haley (Nimrata Randhawa) as the rouge waffle house waitress, waffle house bumpkin.
“Of course, permanent war implies defeat in the end, when the power fails.”
There’s an argument that we’re not that far off that situation. I was listening this morning to a radio programme about young Israelis and their conscription into the army. Some were willing and some were not. They wanted the normal life of a westerner.
Added to that, Hizbullah’s arsenal of rockets, which Israel is afraid to face up to.
A few jihadis who get through, and Israelis could be looking for their second passports. It’s not that far away.
We need another base in the Pacific, right? Because, China.
We can send the military and foreign policy types spewing shit to Nauru–the island is used to it.
My question is this: If Trump cuts of aid to Jordan, the PA, and Egypt, how quickly will Russia/China pick it up?
I wonder if the Russians want a naval base in Egypt?
Lots of Wingnut talk today about the US “getting out of the UN.” Do these people think we will still be wielding vetoes if we leave?
Fun times.
swami
Nauru should beg to be a base for the US military. We treat our pets well. pl
I wonder if the Israeli’s ever consider the wisdom of encouraging an President to threaten to strip aid money from counties that won’t do as they are told.
After all, if they ever piss off President Michelle Obama then there is $3billion that she can hold oved their head…..
Not sure you are serious . . .
Never been there, but i hear there is not a decent/safe harbor anywhere on Nauru.
Also, Guam and Okinawa are both better locations to confront China and DPRK.
“Israelis know there is no peace to be had, Muslims and their governments are too weak, disorganized and incompetent to effectively wage war against Israel to recalim Al Quds”.
You are wrong there, although you are Iranian, and should know. The popular enthusiasm for al-Quds is enormous, and governments have to obey.
What happens if the US builds a shiny new embassy but we perfidious Albions, and almost everyone else, will not go there? Nauru might visit for the base signing foto-op but it would be a quiet place to work. Perhaps a compromise site of lesser religious significance – I believe they IDF have kindly pre-cleared a number of sites in Gaza City that might suit and I am sure the locals would be warm and cuddly.
Colonel,
It is possible that some European UN votes were cast less out of concern for the Palestinians than out of fear of upsetting resident Muslims.
On the other hand it is also the case that even amongst the progressives here, particularly amongst younger people, Israel is now less well-supported than it was.
Babak’s view of Israel as an American Fort Apache in the ME is further confirmed.
Nevertheless might I again put forward a contrarian position? Trump has in reality given the Israelis nothing they did not already have. He has alienated the proxies and Arab allies and for almost the first time the knee-jerk support of the UK and the Europeans for the Western neo-con ME interventions has faltered. Turkey has been given a further push. None of this is consistent with continued attempts to remove or damage Assad.
Trump has also satisfied that part of his electoral base that regards support for Israel as a priority. AIPAC and the Jewish voters must profess to be satisfied as well, though I’d imagine they’ll be waiting to find out whether this was a Greek gift or not. If Trump does pull back from the destabilisation or segmentation of Syria they will not be happy but will find it difficult to say so.
That’s because the cards are now on the table. The justification for the attack on Syria to us, the American and European electorates, was always R2P. The Israelis and the Israeli lobby cannot now turn round and say to those electorates that it was done for Israeli interests and therefore must continue.
The cards are now on the table in Israel itself. The Palestinians will presumably no longer be satisfied with corrupt or self-seeking leaders and will demand that their leaders represent them. Vichy type compromises are now less acceptable.
Therefore there is a chance, maybe slim but it’s there, that Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration may have opened the way to his honouring of his election promises.
Meanwhile, the word is now that Trump is preparing to “bloody North Korea’s nose.”
CONFIRMED: US ‘preparing to attack’ North Korea
Daily Telegraph claims US engaging in advanced planning for military strike against North Korea
http://theduran.com/us-preparing-attack-north-korea/
Unreported is whether Trump and South Korea are prepared to handle North Korea’s “bloody nose” retaliation against South Korea and/or US forces there, which is certain. And that’s if North Korea limits their retaliation, which they might not.
This will leave Trump with no option but to escalate to full-scale invasion.
And then we’ll have China to deal with.
Colonel,
Speaking of pets, Russia is expanding its Tartus base to a full permanent naval base.
Also Russia is keeping their Air base permanent.
Their reasoning just in case the ISIS terrorists raise their heads.
What the hell, let’s just go to war with our allies.
May is slated to be in Poland tomorrow and announce a major new defense collaboration with the Poles. Bilateral, I heard, but not sure.
“There will be no peace for Israel. pl ”
As if Israel wanted peace. When you’re using colonial troops to fight your wars and the colony is supporting you (think John Company), you definitely don’t want peace. The Raj is doing very, very well these days, thank you, and there is very little unrest. Where’s the problem?
NK does not fit the parallel. It is the interesting case. Just can’t believe the Raj would jeopardize his elephants and jewels for NK. Can’t believe it. Won’t happen.
Name a single country that will go to war over Jerusalem. Saddam Hussein would have, but he met with an unfortunate end. Turkey? To paraphrase Kellie Pickler, “I heard of Hungary, but I never heard of Turkey.”
Agreed, there will be no peace for Israel, but the decisive question is who will prevail, the current Iranian-Persian civilization order or the Liver eaters. By my infinitely amenable knowledge of ME history, I will put money on the Liver eaters, maybe not in my lifetime, but definitely in my children’s and my children’s child
Matthew — Nature abhors a vacuum…Russia will be happy to step in and up and over anyone we “cut off in a fit of pique.” The Great Game requires participation or it becomes “pick-up sticks.” Haley is an embarrassment but I’m sure
DT is so very, very proud tonight.
outthere
I did not say that we would want the place. pl
May needs to read her history.
The last British Prime minister to arrange of special military deal with Poland was Neville Chamberlain.
That went well.
Richard,
That is indeed he worst case scenario. I doubt the South Korean’s or Japan would find a strike acceptable But maybe Trump will go for the decapitation strategy and prevent NK from having he ability to hit a West Coast City with an ICBM.
If he has decided to go down this road it would be in line with Trumps thinking about the world. He may not be in the regime change game but
you can be an America First President and bomb the hell out of other countries. Trump has no intention of being he POTUS who allowed a US city to be destroyed.
It would still be a disaster for the region, the US and the world but it would be consistent with Trumps view of the world and the US role in it.
Laguerre,
I agree Britain is not in Realist mode as far as FP isconcerned and hasn’t been since Blair took office but I would be interested in what you mean by the ‘extremist ultras’
You’ll have to school me on the strategic value of the rock, but I’d guess the problem is that we own a lot of rocks in that area and don’t need another Superfund site to babysit. About fifteen years ago, I was supposed to create a series of articles detailing a bunch of the world’s least desirable tourist destinations. Nauru was on the list. Problem was that the first on the list was Moldova, which was experiencing a wave of sex slave kidnappings. So I went to Moldova, but the Moldovans, who weren’t in on the joke, were great hosts who took me over the whole country, including their massive, drive-through wine cellars. I declined to write a mean-spirited article, and so, my great chance to visit Nauru evaporated.
We once laboured under the Norman Yoke. Our Brexit suffering is set to go beyond the joke. What would make President Trump popular here would be for him to recognise Camelot as the capital of Britain. (it is over there–just beyond the Scots mist)
laguerre, Avi Shlaim is my favorite among the Israeli New Historians too, versus let’s say Benny Morris. Who can turn quite crazy. I haven’t read Baruch Kimmerling though.
Someone I discovered a couple of years ago is Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin. A book of his caught my attention since it had been a sideline interest of mine in Shakespeare studies, censorship. He is a very interesting scholar. Because he transcends the sometimes rigidly erected mental frontiers:
https://www.hkw.de/de/app/mediathek/video/40293
This has German subtitles unfortunately, I am sure a lot of people here will dislike his references to colonialism:
http://www.daat-hamakom.com/team/amnon-raz-krakotzkin-nono/
********
A lot of time has been wasted in a peace process between so heavily unequal partners. Why? Since parts of both sides by now ultimately mirror each other. Israelis that feel the whole land belongs to them, the Palestinians have Jordan after all? Palestinians that dream about pushing the “colonizers” out, take their country back?
********
I might have dropped the ironical statement that maybe the US should leave the UN altogether in the larger debate. It surely was on my mind.
Thus I had to smile when I read this at the end of the Guardian article:
Michael Oren, Israel’s deputy minister for diplomacy, called for Israel to cut its ties with the UN and expel the organisation from its Jerusalem offices.
“We must evict the UN from the scenic Governor’s House, where its bloated staff does nothing, and give this historic site to a school, a hospital or – best yet – a new US embassy.”
Even Canada voted against. They normally follow the US obediently.
Voting Practices in the UN regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/273691.pdf
Trump is living up to his motto, Make America Grate again,
A bit of reverse logic, but giving the Israelis everything they want exposes their greed. Hopefully it will break their influence on US foreign policy. The dog has been chasing the car for so long it has forgotten what might happen if they catch it.
An unwinnable war for the US. It would be the catalyst needed to crush the current global asset bubble though. The 2008 market meltdown would be a minor glitch in comparison. It won’t happen. Unless that is the desired outcome…
Rashid Khalidi says it so well, reviews the tactics of USA in 1947 Partition Plan, and the Non-Member vote in 2012. The difference today is that the tactics are open bullying rather than discreet.
And their purpose is to “feed the xenophobia of his domestic base.”
http://www.arabamericannews.com/2017/12/22/trump-deepens-americas-isolation/
J: This morning NPR tried to explain that Pakistan co-sponsored the Jerusalem resolution at the UN because of “domestic politics”
and “upcoming elections.”
Could our press be any more parochial and patronizing? The idea that another country may reject our AIPAC-bought foreign policy completely baffles the Fourth Estate.
LeaNder: If you were an Arab, wouldn’t you want the USA and Israel to leave the UN?
And I’m really curious how many elections they need to have in Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq before we stop hearing this nonsense that Zionland is the “only democracy” in the ME.
Fact question: Can a non-Jew legally be PM or DM in Israel? If not, then Israel is not a democracy.
out there, I forget at what specific point Rashid hit a cord that made me turn away. Maybe, given, as non-activist I may have misunderstood?
In this instance the first paragraph reminds me of it. You feel I should get over it? There is something relevant I should know?
I’m afraid Canada only abstained, the classic Canadian mushy middle road.b
Merry Christmas to everyone, or whatever they like to substitute for the winter solstice in their own traditions, if they did, that is, religious one way or another or non-religious, or those that don’t care about their respective rhythms of seasons around them and the lager globe or their religion.
Obviously, first and foremost, the very, very best to Pat Lang and Madame Lang and their family.
Fantasy.
A first step in the direction you are proposing would be for Muslim states to sub-lease Egypt and Jordan from USA; for diplomatic as well as military reasons. The tab is roughly about 2 billion Yankee Greenbacks a year for the both of them. That will not happen and nor anything else.
Then there is the little tiny matter of Turkey breaking diplomatic relations with Israel and declare war. That won’t happen either. Let us not kid ourselves on this forun.
All the lands of the Seljuk Civilization are in the North and are geographically isolated by deserts or bodies of waters from other Muslims. Takfiris are not a thread to Seljuk Muslims but to such states as India, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, France, Jordan, Algeria etc.
If Europeans were sane they would have supported this Perso-Turkic Civilization to the hilt for reasons of global peace and stability. Putin finally grasped what this and acted accordingly.
Briefly OT, relating to the incoherent farce Western foreign policy is descending into.
Our Prime Minister Theresa May has been histrionically claiming that Russian penetration and Putin are responsible for everything from Brexit to Jeremy Corbyn. Then it is claimed that a Russian spy has penetrated her very sancta sanctorum, 10 Downing St.
However, it turns out he was a Ukrainian translator and Chief of Protocol who was translating for her meeting with her Ukrainian opposite number – about all the secret military aid Britain is providing for the Ukraine.
Our Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson – who occasionally lurches from incoherence into a semblance of a realist foreign policy – was meanwhile having a pleasant and jocular meeting with Lavrov, saying that he hoped we and Russia could improve our relations.
Then suddenly the Ukrainians arrest their translator, claim he is Russian and a spy, and spill the story that he’s been in Downing St at the centre of top secret talks.
There must be endless different explanations of what this all means, none of them credible.
https://news.sky.com/story/may-aware-of-reports-of-russian-spy-in-no-10-11180033
On the matter of the opinion of people of other countries about the issue of Palestine and Israel, it reminded me that a number of years ago a Chinese lady had come to me about a lease. She had gone from China to Canada, and had become a Canadian citizen. She was in her late 20’s, spoke pretty good English, and was entrepreneurial. She was doing some work in the U.S. Subsequently, she called me and said that a chef in Houston who was there legally under a work status was somehow having a new issue with the Immigration Service. She had his file and wanted to talk to me about it. I met her at a restaurant, which was a combination light restaurant and bar, with television sets.
I think it was something on the television on the Palestinian situation that led her to remark, unsolicited, that: “The Israelis are the terrorists”.
It was an interesting revelation from a person of her background.
Dear Colonel,
Having seen an interesting interview with the historian, Alfred McCoy (google or youtube can find him for the interested), it is telling how few “friends” we could bring along in this case (and others). To translate “friends” as “nations pursuing their own interests”, suggests a continuing shift in the countries that define their interests as from poorly to grossly misaligned with US interests.
IMO, the reality is that the brutish (as in degrading diplomacy to proclamations) Foreign Policy of the Trump administration is bringing into the clear the divergence in interests as the US economy continues to lose toChina (after WW2, when the US was the world economy, many nations interests were much more “naturally” or “pragmatically” aligned).
Equally brutish is our ongoing efforts to infect the world with our financialized (derivatized) economic model. When it blows up the economy, the US solution – print trillions of $$ – is unavailable to any other nation. It also has accelerated the tendency to US wealth inequality (and elsewhere). Historically, inequality drives societal instability, often violent. It is notable that China remains one of the least unequal societies despite having grown in fifty years from a neofeudal-peasant society to the largest in the world by some measures.
The way out of that fix is for Egypt and Jordan to embrace market economy and reduce corruption and bureaucracy to a less harmful level.
Follow the path of China and the US will have to add quite a few billions to bribing the state leaders. In 1978 China started to experiment of capitalism, and today their economy has the size to become the center of a global network of alliances to counter the USA’s alliance network.
In 1978 China’s GDP per capita was $307 (in fixed 2000-prices (World Bank)), and Egypt’s GDP per capita was $1,073.
In 2016 China’s reached $6,894 per capita and Egypt’s was $2,724.
China reached the $1,000 level per capita in 1993. So if Egypt had followed that path 1 billion dollars would be petty cash.
Would the US tax payers accept annual “gifts” of 40-50 billion dollars?
All that the Arab leaders need to do is focus on economic development. Yes, here and now they can do nothing to Israel but in 60-70 years that a whole different question.
to John F and walrus:
No kidding. Why I brought it up!
Add that to the EU invoking their article 7 (or whatever it is) against the Polish Justice Party regarding independence of the judiciary and you have a periphery v interior dynamic as per back in the day. So, far more is going on than misreading of history. Those of you can read the Financial Times today will see the Brits are damned spooked about some other things.
Babak,
Russia is, in an indirect way, practically a part of the Perso-Turko Civilization after all, y’know. The Mongol “yoke” did tie them to Central Asia much more than the “European” Russia might want to admit.
Ultra Brexiteer’s.
They hold that Britain can exit the EU, while keeping all the economic and influence benifit’s of EU Membership, get all the money back the UK has paid into the EU, and the EU will pay all the costs of the UK leaving the EU.
http://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.ca/?m=1
Canada abstained.
We were going to support the US, but that was before the threats.
Brunswick – these issues you mention are little issues:- “They hold that Britain can exit the EU, while keeping all the economic and influence benefit’s of EU Membership, get all the money back the UK has paid into the EU, and the EU will pay all the costs of the UK leaving the EU.”
Dealing with all that is merely a matter of horsetrading. Quite ugly horsetrading sometimes, and we’ll be lucky to get out of it with our shirts still on our backs given the relative size of the two units, but essentially peripheral.
The central issue is as ever sovereignty.
A problem is that there’s no consensus in the Brexit movement, if it can truly be called that, as to what should be done with that sovereignty if it’s recovered. Sarrazin-type cheap labour globalists rub shoulders with anti-cheap labour deplorables, cronies rub shoulders with those who identify cronyism as one of our more serious problems, extreme Free Traders with Protectionists. It’s a mess. Doesn’t matter. From that mess could emerge something more viable than we have at present and it could only emerge if we are free of the European straitjacket.
That term, “The European straitjacket”, is not used tendentiously. The EU has serious problems to solve if it’s not to disintegrate. It’s a trading empire set up for overtly ideological and political ends but it’s still au fond a trading empire; and many of those living on the periphery of that empire are disadvantaged, are dissatisfied, and will get more so. Whatever solution they might find to that would not be a solution that will address our own severe problems. It would make a solution to our own problems more difficult. That is why the two units need to be separated.
Yes, that is what I have tried to explain to both Iranians and Russians, that they have a lot more in common than with the Western Diocletean Civilization – with little success.
The single biggest problem is the common currency and monetary policy for disparate regions with differing productivity. Of course they also lack a common fiscal regime, which is what it is because Germany is not too keen on funding France, Spain, Italy & Portugal.
EU may have to revert to a common trading system. But that would imply less cheese for the eurocrats in Brussels.
LMAO,
http://peterjnorth.blogspot.ca/?m=1
He’s Brexiteer.
He’s a good man, as is his father, the impressive and dauntingly well-informed Dr Richard North. At a guess I’d say, however, that they’re towards the Sarrazin-type cheap labour globalist end of the spectrum.
I say at a guess because I don’t think I have seen either discuss such matters. Both, from what I have seen, are good people of the sort we certainly can’t do without when it comes to telling us how to get there, but not to help us with the debate about what “there” is.
I expect you know Dr North’s site, but here’s the link if you don’t. It’s the reverse of Christmassy, as you might expect from a site dealing with such a cheerless subject as EU negotiations, so I’ll make up for that by wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year.
http://www.eureferendum.com/
Guatemala has also taken the plunge to curry favor with the White House.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-israel-guatemala/guatemala-to-move-embassy-to-jerusalem-backing-trump-idUSKBN1EI0LJ?feedType=RSS&feedName=newsOne