In his famous inaugural address, way back in 1961, US President John F. Kennedy, had paid the following homage to the United Nations. He said:
“To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support – to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invectives, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak – and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.”
This was 63 years ago. Any one viewing the activities of the United Nations today will doubt whether it deserves to be called our ‘last best hope’ in any situation, let alone in the case of war.
Of course, the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians is top on my mind. Before the eyes of the world, the UN is feigning helplessness to stop the ethnic cleansing and other inhumane happenings in Palestine.
Long before now, whenever the United States went on rampage and attacked smaller nations, enforced regime change or just found a direct way to loot their resources, we were left wondering whether the UN has any wish to stand for the underdog countries among its members.
The unfolding genocide against Palestinians proves what we fear.
Without doubt, one of the most gratifying images I saw on international news recently, was the sight of Israelis in Tel Aviv protesting against their leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
They called him a “Crime Minister” and demanded his resignation on the grounds that his mass murder and disproportionate use of force in Gaza and the West Bank only worsened their situation with Palestine, without any victory in sight.
This is coming from his own people, fellow Jews and Israelis, so why is the so-called international community, led by the UN, finding it hard to stop the carnage, to apply the appropriate sanctions that will force Israel into obedience to international laws?
While ordinary citizens of the world have taken to the streets and town squares of countless cities around the globe, to protest the continuing mass murder in Palestine, the world body seems immune to their appeals and cries.
Twice the Israeli Foreign minister had torn United Nation’s documents to shreds at the UN Chambers, to show his absolute scorn and disdain for whatever the document contained, but this does not stop the United Nations from providing the protective shield Israel needs to continue its offensive in Palestine.
Today, though a great percentage of the world is with Palestine, the genocide won’t stop because the big nations of the West are entirely in support of it.
Even when Israelis took to the streets against Netanyahu, their message was that he had derailed from his earlier claim of saving their hostages, and was now on a sadistic path of annihilating Palestinians and further putting their much-prized security in danger. Yet the UN isn’t moved by such concerns.
How then can we call it a world assembly of sovereign states, when it is totally subservient to a few so-called powers and treats the rest as mere vassal states, whose voices or votes hardly count?
If nations of the world can agree on something, only for a few in the UN Security Council to decide against it, and the wishes of the rest goes out in smoke, of what use is their membership?
Take the recent case of the vote to give Palestine full membership, more than three quarters of UN member-states voted for it, yet the few who voted against and the abstentions took the day, because all the powerful nations of the West weren’t for it.
So, of what use is membership of this assembly if it remains a tool in the hands of US and her allies, and a toothless bulldog when it comes to the concerns of others?
For sure it’s time that all self-respecting nations quit their membership of the United Nations. It is united only when it comes to protecting the interests of the so-called developed world, and to ensure the continued subjugation of poor and weak nations of the earth.
Countries with natural resources the Western world covets are particularly at risk because their oil and gas reserves, their uranium and gold deposits are the reason the United States and Co. will stop at nothing to grab and control them.
They make up every excuse to invade, to enforce regime change and to support outright genocide as we are witnessing now in Palestine.
The ICC warrant of arrest for Netanyahu, his war minister and three Hamas leaders were scoffed at by both Israel and the US because they can’t be enforced.
Both claim they are not members of the International Criminal Court, just like they boasted, some years ago, that they were not bound by nuclear non-proliferation treaty because they did not ratify it.
In this case, why should member countries of the UN be bound by this membership and treaties, if the US and Israel are allowed to pick and choose as they please?
The latest in Israel’s genocidal atrocities in the Gaza is the week-long assault on Rafah and renewed attacks in other parts of the Strip, such as the Kamal Adwan hospital and many residential buildings.
Hundreds have been killed in the last few days, prompting the United Nations agency UNRWA to announce a suspension of all its activities because of heightened insecurity and lack of any supplies with which to serve the starving, wounded and displaced population of Gaza.
The UN headquarters is yet to respond to UNRWA’s announcement, but what will it say when it absolutely lacks the powers to stand for what is right?
As for the Arab nations around Palestine, they are even worse than the UN in their complicity with Israel in this genocide.
They are independent nations, they have arms, they are rich and are blood brothers to the poor people of Palestine but they’ve chosen to stand with Israel at the bidding of the US. They will therefore never raise a hand against their brother’s killers preferring to embrace their impotence and making a great show of diplomacy.
In the final analysis, Palestinians are left to their devices, though the sympathy and support of ordinary citizens of the world are with them. But they’ll still win this war because Netanyahu and Co will never be able to annihilate them.
The oil beneath Gazan soil that they are so desperate to reach after their genocidal success will never be within their reach.
Netanyahu will leave both his position and this world without accomplishing his one goal of conquering Palestine, even though he has the US and UN solidly behind him.
