US Defunds UNESCO After Palestine Vote 735
gzipped_tar writes "The U.S. withdrew funding after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's Palestine membership vote yesterday. The decision was triggered by a 1994 US law that requires financial ties to be cut with any UN agency that accords the Palestinians full membership. As Palestine actively pursues entrance to other UN agencies, the defunding list could grow. Interestingly, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) could also be among Palestine's next target, and U.S. is the big supporter of WIPO. A much more disturbing scenario is Palestine joining the International Atomic Energy Agency, cutting American funding to the organization that monitors nuclear proliferation in states like Iran."
Re:USA against the World? (Score:4, Interesting)
Pft.
The palestians have and regularly trashed historical artifacts belonging to other cultures in the region, they should have never been invited to join it. Canada is looking to defund from it as well, and with good cause.
Discrimination is good for the peace process (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:USA against the World? (Score:2, Interesting)
How the US sees it:
1) US pulls funding.
2) UNESCO cries.
3) UNESCO kicks Palestine out.
How China could easily play it:
1) US pulls funding.
2) China offers to fund it.
3) China gains global influence.
The world isn't the same as it was 20 years ago. Regardless what people think about Israel/Palestine, it's a dangerous game, economically.
Re:USA against the World? (Score:5, Interesting)
So if certain countries want to have the U.S. removed from certain U.N. affliates, all they have to do is vote the Palestinians as members and the U.S. will defund their contributions. Consequently the U.S will have no vote, and no influence as it's no longer providing any funding.
Thus the U.S. has given countries who don't like the U.S. some power over the U.S. ability to influence U.N. organizations. The law of unintended consequences.
Sound strategy (Score:5, Interesting)
The Palestinians are hoisting the U.S by it's own petard. The U.S. government passed the 1994 law as a "do what we say or else" measure, under the false belief that this would force the UN to follow U.S. policy. Instead, the Palestinians are being admitted to UN agencies anway, and we're cutting our own throat automatically.
It's not the Palestinians who should be worried.
Re:Sound strategy (Score:2, Interesting)
We're removing ourselves from a cultural organization that promotes a culture we disagree with. Sounds like we're smartly saving a couple bucks that were otherwise being thrown down the drain. How is that like cutting our own throats, which implies we're going to be harmed by this?
It's Illegal to Give Aide to Israel Too (Score:4, Interesting)
Under the Symington Amendment, we're not allowed to give aide to nuclear nations who won't sign onto the NTP. They get around the legality of it, with a don't ask, don't tell policy. But everyone knows Israel has nukes, so it really is a flagrant violation of US law.
Re:It's the Palestinians who have the Nazi connect (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually spent several summers working in Israel, and regularly visited the West Bank. Couldn't get access to Gaza though.
As for your questions: The West Bank and (especially) Gaza are effectively light-duty concentration camps. (Not dedicated, but high-density with low access to food, water, sanitation, or jobs.) Mass graves tend to draw attention. (And direct killing isn't the system being used here.) The ~10% of the Knesset (none of whom are Palestinian: they have to be Israeli) aren't a major political force of their own. And the random police checks, and the requirement that every Palestinian who wants to enter Israel (which means any of them who want to leave their home town for any reason...) register for travel papers, in person, every year, would be similar in effect.
Of course, a closer parallel would be with aparthied-era South Africa.
Re:USA against the World? (Score:4, Interesting)
Are you sure that most Americans actually support that 1994 law? How many even know that it exists?
Personally, it sounds like an extremely silly law to me. I understand why U.S. would oppose recognition of specific Palestinian organizations that are terrorist in nature, like HAMAS. But why the mere recognition of Palestine as a separate and distinct entity from Israel (which it defacto is) such a big issue in U.S. politics, other than the major Israeli political lobby that it has?
Re:USA against the World? (Score:3, Interesting)
Pointless? Not really. If we are going to do it, we should do it and get it over with. Think of it as a big game of Risk, someone has to go after the game eventually.
Alaska to Kamchatka, I am rolling with 3 Dice, defend.
We've been attacking for some rounds now, do we have enough cards to turn in? What's a set worth at the moment? We want to turn in.
We have three cannons. We have these territories so lets get armies on each of them. Do we have something for makers? I need to turn in some towers or something. OK, D20s are worth 100, D8s are worth 50, D4s are worth 25.
Ok, I am dumping all this in the Middle East, lets have some fun.
The Draft. We haven't started it yet. We will, any takers on that bet? My money is on 2012 on being the year for it. Oh yeah, elections are coming up. Dangerous time of our 4 year cycle to cross us. We are ready to fight each other. Now if someone was stupid enough to aggro us all, we are seriously primed to rock n roll. Hell, I might end up out of Retirement. I can't run, but give me wheels and guns, and I can do stuff still. Load me up with a vehicle and let me have some toys, nothing big, something quiet please. Where I live, we call that "go'in' huntin' "
On a more sour and surreal note, lets roll South, all the way to the Canal, take it the fuck back. We should have gave away Carter and kept the Canal. You see, Jimmy lost his fucking mind and started chopping up all the military hardware, right in the middle of the Cold War. Sweet Jesus, we about all shit. Then he gave away the Canal that WE FUCKING BUILT. WTF?
Anyway, we do that and we get 5 Bonus Armies a round.
We seriously should. We could vastly improve the lives of everyone from here to there. Right? Hugo, STFU or your next. Ok, so you are next. Oil, bitches. Brazil as well, these fuckers have to stop cutting down the Rain Forrest. Global fucking Warming, you ignorant dicks. Not to mention all the flora you have slashed and burned that have unique genetic coding that we need to unlock with a big fat clue from it growing here. Not now, you cunts cut it down.
3 Dice Bitches, Defend!
FYI: This is my Republican, Risk: World Agenda Policy. Vote for me and we will win this fucking game or at least move it along.
Re:USA against the World? (Score:3, Interesting)
>There's no apartheid beyond what the media is telling you there is.
So there is apartheid, and only what the media is telling us? There isn't any further apartheid than what the media has already exposed?
Apartheid, according to the Rome statute is
While Palestinians have done nasty things to the Israelis just like Africans did to the Boers, that doesn't negate the fact that there is indeed a legal and institutional mechanism to keep Palestinians apart from Israelis.
The differentiation is entirely based on race, not on other factors like education, income, etc.
A Palestinian cannot buy into an Israeli (Jewish) area even if he had the money to.
There are separate roads for Jews vs. aboriginals. There are separate residential colonies for Jews, no aboriginals allowed.
Much land in Israel is owned by the Jewish National Fund, which, after acquiring land by one means or another, leases it back to only Jews:
The government of Israel wants to make the citizenship of Arab Israelis dependent upon loyalty oaths to the "Jewish character" of Israel. What would people say about asking Africans to take an oath to the "Boer character of South Africa"? Or the "white character of Alabama"?
Similar to the way the Ku Klux Klan operated as a quasi-citizens council, the Rabbinical councils pass decrees about not renting to aboriginals [electronicintifada.net], which are enforced through threats of violence.
If the state has no intention of discriminating on the basis of race, why do Israeli ID cards note race?
Infrastructure (water, roads, etc.) is allocated on a preferential basis to Jewish settlements. The wall (which exceeds the limits of the 1968 line) cuts aboriginals off from their farmlands and orchards. In order to go from one place to another, they must travel a circuitous network of paths, often by foot. Humans who differ from the aboriginals by accident of birth can travel on wide, new highways [icahd.org].