tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2459515026375285844..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Taking Names: ‘I’m not your friend anymore?’ / 2 weeks in Jerusalem / Hardy: Nobody Comes: 8 Poems / Mercy (Cats of Osaka)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-83290230231302730952017-12-21T10:15:02.626-08:002017-12-21T10:15:02.626-08:00BTW, respects to PB, but to be fair, this sentence...BTW, respects to PB, but to be fair, this sentence - <br /><br />Benjamin Netanyahu pre-emtively denounced the vote calling the UN a “house of lies.”<br /><br />- is missing one thing.<br /><br />A "p".TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-55240445155857671632017-12-21T10:07:56.934-08:002017-12-21T10:07:56.934-08:00Right, Mr and Mrs and Ms USA, but that shiny redri...Right, Mr and Mrs and Ms USA, but that shiny redribbon-wrapt new shitmobile waiting for you in your driveway xmas morning in all those lying warm and fuzzy tv ads -- it's your present to... YOURSELF!!<br /><br />Of course you don't want any of that discretionary money given to all those desperate poor countries, they're such ingrates, you can't even buy their votes any more!<br /><br />Let's play the Israeli way, our ball, our game, our rules, or we quit!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-56894797335988424722017-12-21T09:58:09.970-08:002017-12-21T09:58:09.970-08:00 Jon WilliamsVerified account @WilliamsJon
12m12 ... Jon WilliamsVerified account @WilliamsJon<br />12m12 minutes ago<br /><br />Applause breaks out as #UN General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to condemn US recognition of #Jerusalem as capital of #Israel.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-39654098066815958602017-12-21T09:52:30.149-08:002017-12-21T09:52:30.149-08:00[Beaumont on UN vote, cont.]
Speaking to the asse...[Beaumont on UN vote, cont.]<br /><br />Speaking to the assembly before the vote, Haley – who earlier in the week told members that the US “would be taking names” – returned to the offensive.<br /><br />“I must also say today: When we make generous contributions to the UN, we also have expectation that we will be respected,” she said. “What’s more, we are being asked to pay for the dubious privileges of being disrespected.”<br /><br />Haley added: “If our investment fails, we have an obligation to spend our investment in other ways… The United States will remember this day.”<br /><br />In his own speech Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said UN members who backed the resolution were being manipulated. “You are like puppets pulled by your Palestinian masters,” he told the session.<br /><br />While Thursday’s resolution was in support of existing UN resolutions on Jerusalem and the peace process, the clumsy intervention by Trump and Haley also made the vote a referendum on Trump’s often unilateral and abrasive foreign policy.<br /><br />The debate and vote highlighted for a second time in a week the international isolation of the United States over the Jerusalem issue, following a vote in the security council on Tuesday over the same issue in which it was outnumbered 14-1.<br />Analysis Trump's bullying and bluster on Jerusalem is bad news for the UN<br />US hard power diplomacy over Israel will end up being an expensive clash if Washington cuts its funding to the UN<br />Read more<br /><br />The threatening US posture, which had been denounced as both counter-productive and “bullying”, only seemed to have hardened the resolve of countries in opposing Trump’s 6 December move.<br /><br />The resolution, co-sponsored by Turkey and Yemen, called Trump’s recognition “null and void” and reaffirmed 10 security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city’s final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.<br />Advertisement<br /><br />It also “demands that all states comply with security council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognise any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions”.<br /><br />Earlier on Thursday, as it had become clear that the US and Israel would be heavily defeated, Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pre-emtively denounced the vote calling the UN a “house of lies.”<br /><br />“The state of Israel rejects this vote outright,” Netanyahu said. “Jerusalem is our capital, we will continue to build there and additional embassies will move to Jerusalem.<br /><br />“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, whether or not the UN recognises this. It took 70 years for the United States to formally recognise this, and it will take years for the UN to do the same.”<br /><br />Michael Oren, Israel’s deputy minister for diplomacy, called for Israel to cut its ties with the UN and expel the organisation from its Jerusalem offices.<br /><br />“We must evict the UN from the scenic Governor’s House, where its bloated staff does nothing, and give this historic site to a school, a hospital or – best yet – a new US embassy.”TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-1078215241244244992017-12-21T09:51:16.486-08:002017-12-21T09:51:16.486-08:00UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump's recogn...UN votes resoundingly to reject Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as capital<br /><br />The United Nations body’s debate and vote highlighted for a second time in a week the international isolation of the United States over the Jerusalem issue<br />Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem<br /><br />Thu 21 Dec ‘17 12.23 EST<br /><br />The United Nations general assembly has delivered a stinging rebuke to Donald Trump, voting by a huge majority to reject his unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.<br /><br />The vote came after a redoubling of threats by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, who said that Washington would remember which countries “disrespected” America by voting against it.<br /><br />Despite the warning, 128 members voted in favour of the resolution in support of the long-standing international consensus that the status of Jerusalem – which is claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital – can only be settled as an agreed final issue in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.<br /><br />Although largely symbolic, the vote in emergency session of the world body had been the focus of days of furious diplomacy by both the Trump administration and Israel, including Trump’s threat to cut US funding to countries that did not back the US recognition.<br /><br />But on Thursday, only nine states – including the United States and Israel voted against the resolution.<br /><br />35 countries abstained, including Canada – which Palestinian officials had expected would support the US position. Ambassadors from several abstaining countries, including Mexico, used their time on the podium to criticise Trump’s unilateral move.<br /><br />Another 21 delegations were absent from the vote, suggesting the Trump’s warning over funding cuts and Israel’s lobbying may have had some effect.<br /><br />While support for the resolution was somewhat less than Palestinian officials had hoped, the meagre tally of just nine votes in support of the US and Israeli position was a serious diplomatic blow for Trump.<br /><br />Immediately after the vote Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas described the result as a “victory for Palestine”.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-72301874558391023242017-12-21T05:29:04.525-08:002017-12-21T05:29:04.525-08:00[Peter Beaumont cont.]
Thursday’s emergency gener...[Peter Beaumont cont.]<br /><br />Thursday’s emergency general assembly session is as much a vote on the US’s claim to international leadership under Trump as on the fraught issue of Jerusalem.<br /><br />In a sign of the uphill struggle the US and Israel face, King Salman of Saudi Arabia – a country frequently held up as the model for warming relations in the Arab world with Israel – announced he continued to support the idea of East Jerusalem as a future capital of a Palestinian state.<br />Advertisement<br /><br />While Trump’s threat was seen in the Middle East – including Israel – as being aimed at US allies such as Jordan and Egypt, who each receive more than $1bn in American aid and are expected to vote against the US, observers are sceptical whether Trump could follow through on his threat.<br /><br />Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed the hope that the world would teach “a good lesson” to the US, adding that Trump could not buy Turkey’s vote “with your dollars”.<br /><br />“We are expecting big numbers supporting the resolution,” one Palestinian official who has been tracking the votes said on Thursday morning. “Perhaps somewhere around 160 in favour. What we are hearing is that Nikki Haley’s letter has had a very good impact for us.”<br /><br />Trump went further than Haley on Wednesday, saying Americans were tired of being taken advantage of. “For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. We’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us.”<br /><br />Supporters of the resolution expect Canada to vote with the US and Israel, and there has been speculation that Australia might abstain. A UN diplomat said Hungary and the Czech Republic might also bow to US pressure.<br /><br />Diplomats expressed their anger at the Trump administration’s tactics. “No honourable state would bow to such pressure,” said Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. “The world has changed. The belief that ‘I am strong therefore I am right’ has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices.”<br /><br />Among other countries to have been critical of Trump and Haley’s comments is Bolivia, which has a security council seat. “The first name that she should write down is Bolivia,” its UN ambassador, Sacha Sergio Llorenty Soliz, said of Haley’s message. “We regret the arrogance and disrespect to the sovereign decision of member states and to multilateralism.”<br /><br />Trump’s comments have also attracted criticism in the US. Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tweeted: “Our government should not use its leadership at the UN to bully/blackmail other nations that stand for religious liberty and justice in Jerusalem. Justice is a core value of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”<br /><br />Israel has been trying to garner support for the US’s stance, with its deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, saying that both the US and Israel are making “immense efforts” to block Thursday’s resolution.<br /><br />Despite the tenor of the Trump administration’s public comments over the president’s recognition of Jerusalem, behind the scenes there has been a recognition that the unpopularity of the move – which has led to a Palestinian refusal to meet US peace mediators – will necessitate a cooling-off period, according to a senior US official.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-54161423033539706822017-12-21T05:25:28.185-08:002017-12-21T05:25:28.185-08:00UN to vote on Jerusalem amid accusations of bullyi...UN to vote on Jerusalem amid accusations of bullying by Trump<br /><br />Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu denounces United Nation as ‘house of lies’, amid last ditch efforts by US and Israel to head off opposition<br /><br />Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem<br /><br />Thu 21 Dec ‘17 06.52 EST<br /><br />Donald Trump’s threat to cut US funding to countries that oppose his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in a UN vote on Thursday has set the scene for confrontation with countries already bridling over the president’s approach.<br /><br />Amid accusations of bullying and blackmail, the US and Israel have continued their furious efforts to persuade countries to back Trump’s position, amid predictions that more than 150 of the 193 countries in the general assembly could vote against the US.<br /><br />Trump made his threat to cut US funding on Wednesday as he gave his wholehearted support to his UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, who had sent members a letter warning that the US would be “taking names” of those who opposed it.<br /><br />The draft resolution reaffirms 10 security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city’s final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.<br /><br />It also “demands that all states comply with security council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognise any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions”.<br /><br />In an indication of the scale of defeat anticipated, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, launched a pre-emptive attack denouncing the UN as a “house of lies” on Thursday morning.<br /><br />“The state of Israel rejects this vote outright,” Netanyahu said. “Jerusalem is our capital, we will continue to build there and additional embassies will move to Jerusalem.<br /><br />“Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, whether or not the UN recognises this. It took 70 years for the United States to formally recognise this, and it will take years for the UN to do the same.”<br /><br />The Israeli foreign ministry had earlier described the country’s frantic diplomatic efforts as “very vast”.<br /><br />TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-63272530141092823412017-12-20T19:56:29.055-08:002017-12-20T19:56:29.055-08:00Marcel Khalife: They stopped me at the border
The...Marcel Khalife: They stopped me at the border<br /><br />They stopped me at the border, asking for my I.D.<br />I told them, "It's in Jaffa, my grandmother's hiding it"<br /><br />And with these words, the group split in two<br />One half carried whips, the other asked, “Where is it?”<br />"In Palestine," I cried, and they split me in two<br />One half at the border, one half in my grandmother’s breast<br /><br />They stopped me at the border, asking for my I.D.<br />I told them, "It's in Jaffa, my grandmother's hiding it"<br /><br />Oh grandmother, hiding who knows where,<br />Hide my ID, hide it in some wall<br />They want to burn it, wipe it from the world<br />Oh clouds of my country, don’t rain on them<br /><br />They stopped me at the border, asking for my I.D.<br />I told them, "It's in Jaffa, my grandmother is hiding it"<br /><br />Marcel Khalife (b. 1950, Lebanon), They stopped me at the border, 1980<br /><br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s9q2Vnn7dE" rel="nofollow">Marcel Khalife: They stopped me at the border, live in Jordan, 1980s</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com