In my previous blog "Seven hours from victory to victimhood for Hamas" I wrote “…. one side of the aisle will celebrate the attack as a victory, up till when Israel reacts, they will then play the victimhood card.” Now that Hamas is facing devastating destruction, they go running to the United Nations, tail between legs, to get Israel to agree to a ceasefire.
At the UN Security Council, US wanted a resolution on “humanitarian pauses” whilst Russia wanted “an immediate ceasefire”. Each country has a veto and not a surprise to anyone, the UNSC failed to pass a resolution.
The task then goes to the UN General Assembly with a resolution tabled by Jordan which called for “an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.” It was a dastardly act of white-washing terrorism by leaving out mention Hamas started the conflict with their barbaric Oct 7 attack inside Israel against civilians. Canada objected and asked for an amendment to include a condemnation of Hamas. Canada’s amended resolution failed to get the 2/3 majority votes. Voting then reversed to the original Jordanian resolution. This passed with 120 in favour, 14 against and 45 abstention.
A humanitarian vote is of course a good thing. But in this Israeli-Hamas conflict, one cannot talk of humanitarian aid or ceasefire without first condemning what Hamas did. A vote for the Jordanian resolution is a vote for humanitarian cause AND a vote for terrorism. What happened at the UN is a crying shame. It means 120 countries voted that it is OK for terrorists to seek and kill unarmed civilians, rape, kidnap, torture, burn and chop off heads of old, young, kids and babies.
A look at the voting result shows an obvious bias and voting power of Muslim countries. They are all for terrorism. To add insult to injury, the assembly cheered the passing of the shameful resolution. An infuriated Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová called on the Czech Republic to leave the United Nations following the grotesque display of anti-Semitism by the General Assembly.
Some interesting observations at how the voting went:
a) All Muslim countries refused to condemn the barbaric terrorist acts of Hamas. All except one voted AGAINST Canadian resolution and YES for the Jordanian resolution. Is anyone surprised?
b) Very surprised Tunisia ABSTAINED. Could the country that had its Arab Spring history make a difference? However, Tunisia also voted NO for the Canadian resolution.
c) Many Western countries voted for the Canadian resolution to condemn Hamas. When the Canadian resolution failed, these countries did not vote AGAINST the Jordanian resolution with US, choosing to ABSTAIN instead.
d). Many countries, including Singapore, voted for the Canadian resolution. When this failed, they then voted for the Jordanian resolution.
e). (c) and (d) above shows that many countries are afraid to vote against a humanitarian resolution. In an act of cowardice, they voted for the gallery or abstained.
f). Tiny countries show the lion’s courage Singapore lacks. They show what was the right and decent thing to do. Fuji, Nauru, Micronesia, Marshall Island, Papua New Guinea, Tonga voted AGAINST the Jordanian resolution. Cabo Verde, Cyprus, Haiti, Kiribati, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Palua, San Morino, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, all ABSTAINED.
g). Very surprised but glad Ukraine voted YES for Canada’s anti-terrorism resolution and ABSTAINED from the final Jordanian humanitarian resolution.
h). Israel and US are totally isolated. The US seems to be still very committed to the security of Israel, at least going by the Biden administration's acts recently. Obama had driven a wedge in the US-Israel relationship but Biden seems to be providing the backing Israel needs at the moment. However, this UN vote has to be framed away from geopolitical terms but as a humanitarian effort without compromising anti-terrorism policies.
Shamefully, 120 countries have shown the world it is OK to seek and kill unarmed civilians, rape, kidnap, torture, burn and chop off heads of old, young, kids and babies. After your heinous acts, if anyone comes to seek revenge and right the wrongs, we 120 countries have your back.
Shame on you Singapore. The Lion City without the heart of a lion. We show the world we are for humanitarian causes BUT we also condone the most barbaric terrorist attack in human history.
It is important we understand how the Asean countries' votes went.
b) Muslim countries have a block vote, does not surprise anyone how they voted.
c) Not a single Asean country has the courage of those small island countries to vote for ceasefire AND condemn Hamas. None did the decent and right thing. Only Philippines did the next decent thing by voting for the Canadian resolution and ABSTAIN from the Jordanian resolution.
Philippines, the country Singaporeans disdain for their high violence, did the next best thing in this day of infamy at the United Nations.
32 Thai workers have been slaughered and it is difficult to understand why Thai votes turned out the way it does. Why bother about political correctness when Muslim countries obviously don't give a damn to the sentivities of others.
This UN resolution is not binding. It is the hope a UN resolution of this nature will convince countries to accede to the wishes of the majority and thus helps drive national policies. However, this particular resolution is purely for optics. No one expects Israel to subjugate their security objectives to the designs of states aligned with its enemy. This was purely a propaganda exercise orchestrated by unseen hands. It's purpose was simply to damage Israel and cast the Jews as the evil one. And by jolly what success they have over the years going by the count of UN resolutions. Israel alone has garnered more UN resolutions against it than all other countries combined. People need to understand these propaganda scores has impact on lives and properties on the real world outside. Singapore and 119 countries lack the capacity to understand how their votes emboldened terrorists and anti-semitism across the ME and Western world. They have just made the world a much much more dangerous place.
Addendum:
This UN resolution is not binding. It is the hope a UN resolution of this nature will convince countries to accede to the wishes of the majority and thus helps drive national policies. However, this particular resolution is purely for optics. No one expects Israel to subjugate their security objectives to the designs of states aligned with its enemy. This was purely a propaganda exercise orchestrated by unseen hands. It's purpose was simply to damage Israel and cast the Jews as the evil one. And by jolly what success they have over the years going by the count of UN resolutions. Israel alone has garnered more UN resolutions against it than all other countries combined. People need to understand these propaganda scores has impact on lives and properties on the real world outside. Singapore and 119 countries lack the capacity to understand how their votes emboldened terrorists and anti-semitism across the ME and Western world. They have just made the world a much much more dangerous place.
Addendum:
Singapore's Permanent Representative to the UN Burhan Gafoor explained “This resolution reaffirms all parties’ obligations to respect and uphold international law, including international humanitarian law...... it makes no mention of the Hamas’ role in perpetrating the massive and coordinated terror attacks..." The question is why vote for the resolution in light of the garing omission?
A parting shout out :
Plato said:
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
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2 comments:
Somehow it becomes a binary choice.
Yes or No.
When ethics, morals and principles are part of the debate,
it gets complicated and we cannot go past this mess without
agreeing on the beginnings, which itself is complicated, unverifiable
and historically imperfect.
We can all agree that lives are lost, young, old, male, female.
But an eye for an eye is as old as written text.
Artificial intelligence, the moon, Mars, Uranus, quantum mechanics... cannot solve
the human lust for combat, vengeance, control, conquest.
We kill, because we can.
Very true.
It's a complex mess.
Everyone has biases and views from their own persectives whether religious, moral, justice, rationalism, practicalism, etc.
Two huge problems. (1) most are too lazy to research for truth or understanding. (2) there is huge propaganda on both sides. One need to be careful. But is is obvious one side is clearly loosing on the propaganda war.
"without agreeing on the beginning" -- very true. In my next blog I try to unravel this. The events unraveling there affects everyone directly and indirectly. We should be interested in what the bloody hell is going on.
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