HYPOCRISY! The devil herself!
Russia and China’s veto of the UN Security Council resolution which condemned Syria over its brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters and contained a weak reference to the possibility of sanctions against Damascus proved (again) one thing – that despite torrents of soaring rhetoric to the contrary by our leaders, international politics is not about doing what is right and in the best interests of all nations and peoples, it’s only about the short-term, short-sighted, political self-interest of leaders and their governments. And the statement by U.S. ambassador Susan Rice, described by the New York Times as “one of her most bellicose speeches in the Council chamber”, was pure, unadultered hypocrisy at its most naked.
But let us first of all be clear about the meaning of hypocrisy (hypocrite is from hypokrite, the ancient Greek for actor). The definitions of hypocrisy are “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not… the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.” The synonyms for hypocrisy are “cant… dissembling… insincerity… piousness.” The antonyms are “genuineness… sincerity.”
If I was contributing to the updating of dictionaries, I would add another definition of hypocrisy – American foreign policy.
In her statement after Russia and China had vetoed and before she walked out of the Council chamber, Susan Rice said: “The United States is outraged that this council has utterly failed to address an urgent moral challenge and a growing threat to regional peace and security.”
This is, of course, the same Susan Rice who will cast the U.S. veto to kill the Palestinians’ bid for Security Council recognition of their statehood (if the bid gets to the Security Council). It is apparently of no concern to her and her master that the Security Council has utterly failed, time and time again, to address the criminal policies of the Zionist (not Jewish) state of Israel, policies which present a far more urgent moral challenge and growing threat to regional peace and security than what Bashar al-Assad’s monster regime is doing in Syria.
Rice also said: “Today the courageous people of Syria can now see who on this Council supports their yearning for liberty and universal human rights and who does not.”
Quite so, madam ambassador, but is it of no concern to you that almost the whole world (of peoples not governments) is aware of who on the Security Council supports the Palestinian yearning for liberty and universal human rights and who does not?
If there was a Nobel prize for hypocrisy, Susan Rice would have to be added to the list of nominees for it along with President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
(Question: What do those two gentlemen have in common? Answer: In the context of targeted assassinations, it can be said that both are cold-blooded killers).
On another matter… The jury in my mind is still out on the question of whether or not professor Shlomo Avineri, the Polish-born Israeli political scientist, is a hypocrite. His most recent article is in Ha’aretz with the headline No realistic chance of permanent Middle East peace. The following is its opening paragraph.
“In his speech to the UN General Assembly, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas once again made a common Palestinian mistake: a Palestinian leader does not have to persuade the nations of the world, but rather the Israelis. A Palestinian state will arise only if the Palestinians convince the Israelis that they are indeed ready to live in peace and mutual recognition.”
In theory that makes a lot of sense, but it ignores the fact that most Israeli Jews have been brainwashed by Zionist propaganda and, as a consequence, need to feel threatened, need to believe they are the victims and not the oppressors. Put another way, most Israeli Jews do not want to believe that the Palestinians (the vast majority of them) have long been ready for peace on terms which any rational government and people in Israel would have accepted with relief.
That being so, there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of peace unless and until an American president has the freedom and the courage to use his leverage to compel Israel to end its occupation of all Arab land grabbed in 1967.
Handy evidence of how Washington really sees Israel and the Zionist lobby (hint; like a lover who never gives back)
One (via Politico):U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice briefed a dozen top American Jewish leaders on an “all out,” if likely doomed, American effort to derail the Palestinian bid for a vote on statehood at the United Nations, according to three people at the meeting.Two (via JTA):
Rice met with the leaders at her apartment at the Waldorf Astoria in New York this morning in the run-up to a Palestinian effort that could include a vote in the Security Council or in the General Assembly, or both, next week. The U.S. has pledged to veto the former, and is also — Rice told the leaders — working to convince European and African countries to abstain from the vote, denying it the nine of fifteen votes required to pass the Security Council.
The U.S. is also whipping votes in the General Assembly in hopes of, at least, cutting into its margin of victory, Rice told attendees. Israel and the U.S. formally back Palestinian statehood, but oppose passing it through the United Nations while negotiations are stalled in the region, a measure they argue could destabilize the region and delegitimize Israel.
“She didn’t have a starry-eyed approach,” one of the Jewish leaders told POLITICO. “There’s an awareness both on her part and on our part that assuming that the Palestinians go ahead with the resolution it’s going to pass the General Assembly and it’s going to pass by a comfortable margin.”
Two of the leaders of Jewish organizations in the room described it as a warm meeting, with attendees expressing their gratitude for the Administrations work. Malcolm Hoenlein, who runs the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and has at times been an Administration critic told Rice the Administration gets less credit than it deserved, another guest said.
“Everybody recognized that it does make a difference what that ultimate vote looks like, and every negative or abstention you get is going to be helpful and is going to be valuable,” the first source said. The Europeans, in particular, are a crucial bloc: There has been discussion of their pushing for a watered down resolution and a formal statement from the “Quartet” of key international actors in exchange for their support, and failing that, the U.S. hopes it can win their “no” votes or abstentions.
The attendees, according to one of the people in the room, were AIPAC’s Lee Rosenberg; World Jewish Congress chief Ron Lauder; the American Jewish Committee’s David Harris; the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman; Hoenlein; Daniel Mariaschin of B’Nai B’rith; Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council on Public Affairs; Peace Now’s Martin Bresler; J Street’s Jeremy Ben-Ami; Rabbi Eric Yoffie of the Union for Reform Judaism; Rabbi Julie Schonfeld of the Rabbinical Assembly; and Rabbi Steven Weil of the Orthodox Union.
At the United Nations, where Israel has become the favorite target of condemnatory resolutions, committees and debates, the United States remains Israel’s most steadfast and dependable ally.
So when I sat down last week with Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, there was one question on my mind: How much of your job is spent on Israel?
“This week?” she said. “A hundred percent.” She laughed, saying she was only being a little bit facetious.
Then she turned serious.
“It’s a significant part of my job. It’s not the majority of my time, because I am the U.S. permanent representative,” Rice said. “But it is never the smallest piece. It is always there.”
One week it might be the Goldstone report on the Gaza War, another week it might be the report on the Turkish flotilla to Gaza or Israel’s Operation Cast Lead or the Durban review conference, she said.
“It’s a lot.”
That’s fodder for detractors who accuse the United States of doing Israel’s bidding, or worse. But Rice says it’s nothing of the kind.
“We’re doing what we think is right,” she told me.
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