The UN says no

On Thursday, the UN General Assembly delivered a strong message to the US: bullying will no longer work. This is the second time in a week that the US has faced condemnation for its unilateral and illegal decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump has single-handedly thrown the entire Palestine-Israel peace process into jeopardy – although, some would say the process was not going anywhere in any case. In this light, Trump may just have provided an opportunity to the global community to chart another path as far as the Palestinian issue goes. Remember, that the involvement of the US in the Israel-Palestine process has somehow always slowed the process to almost a grinding halt. The recent UN General Assembly proceedings promised much drama after US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley decided to – taking what seems to have been a page out of her president’s book – threaten cutting of aid and trade ties with any country that decided to vote against the American stance. Haley’s threat of telling on them to her boss would, in earlier times, have been a slightly daunting proposition. With Trump at the helm in the White House, Haley’s threat may just have done the opposite.

The warnings were not headed, and 128 countries voted in favour of the resolution (against the US). Only nine – the smallest of countries known more as US allies and with little or no influence on global politics – voted against the resolution. If anything, by bringing them on board the US looks more like an ineffective bully that no one is listening to. But can we call the UNGA vote a real victory? Will it force Trump to backtrack? The fact is that this was merely a moral victory that needs to be followed up with concrete action. For example, if there were any real moral courage, then the UK and France would table a resolution calling for some action against the US for violating UN resolutions and blatantly threatening sovereign UN member states. That, though, is naive thinking. For now, we must do with verbal condemnations. And countries such as Canada seem to not even have the ability to vote against the American stance on Israel’s impunity. Canada country chose to abstain from voting, highlighting the hollow promises of current liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. What will be of much more interest will be any fallout of US ally Saudi Arabia voting in favour of the resolution. The kingdom is perceived to have aligned more closely with Israel in recent years – and much more so since Trump visited the region. Nikki Haley talked big about ‘disrespecting’ the US. Maybe its time the US learnt to respect the UN and every other country.