Palestine

For seven months, Israel has continued its targeted slaughter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – the total number of dead and wounded, including those still under the rubble of homes, is approaching 130,000. Prime Minister Netanyahu continues this slaughter with Washington’s blessing, although outwardly the Americans say that they are trying to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to somehow help the Palestinian civilians…

Palestinian President M. Abbas announced the other day that he was reviewing relations with the U.S., given Washington’s veto of a Security Council Resolution that would have recommended granting Palestine full UN membership. It has become obvious to many that the Americans have never taken into account the interests of the Palestinian people when developing their policies. In fact, the goal of the American strategy has been to strengthen Israel. An ever-greater number of countries are abandoning the American military presence: recently, the authorities of the African state of Niger achieved the withdrawal of American troops from that country…

On 18 April, the US vetoed a draft resolution prepared by Algeria proposing to grant full UN membership to the state of Palestine, effectively blocking a Security Council decision to recognise Palestine as a state. Twelve of the fifteen Council members – Slovenia, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Mozambique, Malta, Japan, Guyana, Ecuador, Algeria, as well as Russia, China and France – voted in favour of the resolution, while the UK and Switzerland abstained (Palestine has had observer status at the UN since 2012). The US representative, speaking at the meeting, argued that Palestine’s full membership in the UN “is a decision to be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians”.