{"id":260311,"date":"2024-04-22T12:01:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T11:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=260311"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:38:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:38:38","slug":"us-uk-again-fail-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/04\/us-uk-again-fail-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"US &#038; UK Again Fail Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_260314\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/un-palestine-vote-mansour-uk-usa.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-260314\" class=\"wp-image-260314\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/un-palestine-vote-mansour-uk-usa-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/un-palestine-vote-mansour-uk-usa-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/un-palestine-vote-mansour-uk-usa-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/un-palestine-vote-mansour-uk-usa-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/un-palestine-vote-mansour-uk-usa.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-260314\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Riyad H. Mansour, center, permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the U.N., ahead of an April 8 Security Council meeting on the admission of new members.<br \/>(UN Photo\/Loey Felipe)<\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><em>The Two Powers That Have Done the Most to Wreck the Middle East<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>18 Apr 2024 <\/em>&#8211; This week, the U.S. and U.K. had the chance to correct decades of their blatant geopolitical errors in the Israel-Palestine conflict by welcoming <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/palestine\" >Palestine<\/a> as the 194th United Nations member state.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">[On Thursday, however, the U.S. in the Security Council <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/un-security-council-vote-thursday-palestinian-un-membership-2024-04-18\/\" >vetoed<\/a> granting Palestinian Authority full membership \u00a0while the U.K and Switzerland abstained<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/could-palestinians-become-full-united-nations-member-2024-04-02\/\" class=\"text__text__1FZLe text__inherit-color__3208F text__inherit-font__1Y8w3 text__inherit-size__1DZJi link__link__3Ji6W link__underline_default__2prE_\"  data-testid=\"Link\">.<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">More than any other countries, the U.S. and U.K. have wrecked the Middle East through their non-stop meddling and imperial arrogance. This week they had the chance to make some amends.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A total of 139 countries already recognize the State of Palestine, more than two-thirds of the U.N. member states. Several European states will soon join the list. Yet the U.S. has so far blocked Palestine\u2019s membership in the U.N., with the U.K. always sticking close to the U.S. lead. Both have relentlessly backed Israel\u2019s apartheid rule over Palestine and are currently actively backing <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/israel\" >Israel<\/a> in its horrific destruction of <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/gaza\" >Gaza.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udea8 Biden admin is quietly pressuring countries to vote against Palestinian statehood at the UN, according to diplomatic cables leaked to me:<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/XWxz7kddPK\" >https:\/\/t.co\/XWxz7kddPK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenklippenstein\/status\/1780683348211376278?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >April 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Back in 2011, Palestine had the support of the U.N. Security Council for membership, except that the U.S. forced the Palestinians to accept \u201cobserver\u201d status instead, promising that full membership would soon follow, yet another U.S. deception.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In a comparison of the wreckage by the U.S. and U.K. in the Middle East, the lead role certainly goes to Britain, whose imperial machinations in the region date to the 19th century and continue until today.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Britain kept Egypt under its thumb for decades, from the 1880s to the 1950s. It deceitfully promised overlapping parts of the Ottoman Middle East three times over during World War I: to the French (in the Sykes-Picot Agreement), to the Arabs (in the McMahon\u2013Hussein Correspondence) and to the Zionists (in the Balfour Declaration), purporting to allocate what was not theirs in the first place.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_110133\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-110133\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-scaled.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-500x374.jpg 500w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-1000x748.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-1536x1149.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-2048x1532.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-260x194.jpg 260w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/No-nb_bldsa_5c013-160x120.jpg 160w\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1914\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110133\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The official opening of the assembly of the League of Nations in Geneva, Nov. 5, 1920. (Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Boissonnas, National Library of Norway, Wikipedia Commons, Public domain)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">After World War I, Britain took Palestine for itself under a so-called mandate of the newly created League of Nations, while France grabbed a mandate over Lebanon and Syria.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Britain left Palestine in shambles in 1947, but continued its relentless meddling by teaming up with France and Israel to invade Egypt in 1956. Britain\u2019s meddling has also contributed to destruction and disarray in Yemen, Iraq and many more parts of the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">After World War II, the U.S. picked up where Britain left off, first joining Britain in the MI6-C.I.A. overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953, and then going on to a long career of C.I.A.-led regime-change operations including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, among others.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_110128\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-110128\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Prime_Minister_Mohammad_Mossadegh_of_Iran_taking_seat_at_the_United_Nations_Security_Council.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 964px) 100vw, 964px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Prime_Minister_Mohammad_Mossadegh_of_Iran_taking_seat_at_the_United_Nations_Security_Council.jpg 720w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Prime_Minister_Mohammad_Mossadegh_of_Iran_taking_seat_at_the_United_Nations_Security_Council-500x383.jpg 500w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Prime_Minister_Mohammad_Mossadegh_of_Iran_taking_seat_at_the_United_Nations_Security_Council-260x199.jpg 260w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Prime_Minister_Mohammad_Mossadegh_of_Iran_taking_seat_at_the_United_Nations_Security_Council-160x122.jpg 160w\" alt=\"\" width=\"964\" height=\"738\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110128\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-110128\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Iran\u2019s Mossadegh takes his seat at a 1951 meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York City. (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Throughout the entire postwar period, the U.S. has been the lead dishonest broker between Israel and Palestine, for example calling for the Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 but then boycotting and trying to overthrow Hamas when it won those elections.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In 2011, when Palestine applied for U.N. membership, and won the support of the U.N. Security Council membership committee, the U.S. leaned on Palestine to wait and to accept observer status instead, promising that full membership would soon follow. This was yet another lie.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Despite <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2024\/01\/1146097\" >numerous U.N. Security Council<\/a> resolutions over the years calling for a two-state solution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Israeli governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu have blatantly rejected an independent State of Palestine.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The U.S.A supports the two states solution but blocks the U.N to grant Palestine statehood !!! <\/p>\n<p>Double standards or hypocrisy? <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/c6jODMfWpi\" >pic.twitter.com\/c6jODMfWpi<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Umukasi Kivu (@Umukasi_Kivu) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Umukasi_Kivu\/status\/1781074086094905647?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" >April 18, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The current Netanyahu cabinet includes right-wing extremists such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir who openly call for <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/world\/right-wing-israeli-ministers-join-thousands-event-calling-countrys-res-rcna135863\" >ethnic cleansing<\/a> of the West Bank and Gaza to create a Greater Israel from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Yet despite Israel\u2019s relentless provocations, routine killing of Palestinians (known colloquially as \u201cmowing the grass\u201d), repeated violations of the U.N. Security Council and now the slaughter in Gaza, the U.S. and U.K. have remained steadfast in backing Israel and opposing Palestine as if nothing at all is amiss.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The question is whether the U.S. and U.K. have any sense and any shame at this point. They may think they are supporting Israel by blocking Palestine\u2019s U.N. membership, but the fact is that Israel is more isolated and endangered than ever because of the Israeli government\u2019s extremism, its shocking violence against the Palestinian people and its apartheid rule.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_108490\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-108490\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Gaza_war_damage_2023.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 996px) 100vw, 996px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Gaza_war_damage_2023.jpg 996w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Gaza_war_damage_2023-500x293.jpg 500w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Gaza_war_damage_2023-768x450.jpg 768w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Gaza_war_damage_2023-260x152.jpg 260w, https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Gaza_war_damage_2023-160x94.jpg 160w\" alt=\"\" width=\"996\" height=\"584\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-108490\" \/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-108490\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Damaged buildings in Gaza, 6 Dec 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Tasnim News Agency, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Since the start of the war last fall, 33,000 Palestinians are officially counted as dead, yet the actual death toll is vastly higher, with tens of thousands more still buried under the rubble or dead from extreme deprivations of food, water, and healthcare.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Alas, in recent days, the double standards and falsehoods of the U.S. and U.K. have been on full display.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The U.S. and U.K. adamantly <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/press.un.org\/en\/2024\/sc15650.doc.htm\" >refused to condemn<\/a> Israel\u2019s brazenly illegal bombing of Iran\u2019s diplomatic compound in Damascus, Syria, on April 1, but then <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/press.un.org\/en\/2024\/sc15660.doc.htm\" >heatedly condemned<\/a> Iran when it counter-attacked two weeks later. This absurd double-standard makes the U.S. and U.K. look like crass bullies in the eyes of the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">After more than a century of U.K. and U.S. meddling in the Middle East, it\u2019s time to be honest about the facts and the solutions. Most importantly, welcoming Palestine as a U.N. member state and implementing the two-state solution according to international law would have been the path to peace, justice, and security for both Israel and Palestine.<\/p>\n<p>______________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Jeffrey-D.-Sachs.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-216053\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Jeffrey-D.-Sachs.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/><\/a> Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, is Director of Columbia\u2019s Center for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He has served as Special Adviser to three UN Secretaries-General [Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and currently serves as an SDG Advocate under Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres. His books include <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/293755\/the-end-of-poverty-by-jeffrey-d-sachs\/9780143036586\/\" >The End of Poverty<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/298397\/common-wealth-by-jeffrey-d-sachs\/9781101202753\/\" >Common Wealth<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cup.columbia.edu\/book\/the-age-of-sustainable-development\/9780231173155\" >The Age of Sustainable Development<\/a>, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cup.columbia.edu\/book\/building-the-new-american-economy\/9780231184045\" >Building the New American Economy<\/a><em>, and most recently,<\/em> <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cup.columbia.edu\/book\/a-new-foreign-policy\/9780231547888\" >A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism<\/a>. <em>Sachs was also an advisor to the last leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as to the first president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Sybil-Fares.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-260312\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Sybil-Fares.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"101\" \/><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em>Sybil Fares is a specialist and adviser in Middle East policy and sustainable development at SDSN.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2024\/04\/18\/us-uk-should-welcome-palestine-statehood-at-un\/?eType=EmailBlastContent&amp;eId=7fc4e714-bb3b-4435-820a-5dc0a554aa60\" >Go to Original \u2013 consortiumnews.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>18 Apr 2024 &#8211; The Two Powers That Have Done the Most to Wreck the Middle East &#8211; Both are currently actively backing Israel in its horrific genocide of Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":260314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[87,865,715,767,427,639,124,70],"class_list":["post-260311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-massacre","tag-middle-east","tag-palestine","tag-uk","tag-united-nations","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260315,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260311\/revisions\/260315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}