The U.N. uses words for peace but acts for war

Does the United Nations matter when it deliberately votes with words, and without action? Can United Nation votes be bought or bullied?

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has overwhelmingly voted for a ceasefire in Gaza, expanding the USA's verbal loneliness in supporting Israel.

153 For
10 Against
23 Abstaining

That’s a significant increase in the call for Israel’s hostilities to end, in comparison to the vote on October 27 which was 120 versus 14 (with 45 abstentions).

TROUBLING THOUGHTS ON U.N. VOTES

The latest abstentions included Germany, Ukraine and the UK.

The 10 against were Austria, Czechia, Guatemala, Israel, Liberia, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and the USA. That’s 405 million of the 8080 million global population (5%).

Why, in particular, are some of the smallest countries against peace?

• Micronesia: With only 106,000 people, “provides the United States with unlimited and exclusive access to its land and waterways for strategic purposes.”

• Naura: Less than 12,000 population with a UN vote equivalent to India’s 1.4bn citizens. In 2020, it signed a deal with the USA which was “anticipated to provide access to the full range of investment support offered by the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), formerly known as the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

• Liberia: The United States is the largest bilateral donor with $5 billion delivered “since the civil war ended in 2003. On a per capita basis and adjusted for inflation, that assistance is more than double that of the Marshall Plan’s investments in Europe.”

• Papua New Guinea: The Voice of America reports that the country’s “leadership is promising ‘cascading’ benefits from growing military and security cooperation with the United States following the first visit by a sitting U.S. defense secretary.”

• Guatemala: There’s a fight for power here, and a UN voting factor may have been that “the United States announced visa restrictions on nearly 300 Guatemalan citizens on Monday due to what it described as ‘anti-democratic actions’ of officials and ‘other malign actors,’ accused of attempting to annul the election won by President-elect Bernardo Arévalo.”

THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX IS LAUGHING

On December 5, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said that: “U.S.-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families (in Gaza).”

On December 8, it was announced by the Pentagon that the “United States government has used an emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review,” as part of a larger package.

It’s unsurprising in our propaganda era that it was more widely reported that Joe Biden then told donors that Israel is “starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing”, as if he was capitulating to world opinion.

BELIEF IS ONLY PROPORTIONAL TO ACTION

The UN was reminded of the threat of a broader Middle East conflict when “Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they hit a Norwegian commercial tanker with a missile in their latest protest against Israel's bombardment of Gaza.”

153 countries then voted for peace with words. How effective are words versus missiles?

They don’t need the USA to collectively sanction Israel, so why haven’t they? Is it because that’s what would actually anger the USA?

Professor Poppy asked me to give her the final word again.

Credit: Weapon by Oleg Mityukhin, dove by Canva, UN logo by propagandists.