“What we have witnessed here in the Security Council is an
insult. It won’t be forgotten,” said Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to
the United Nations, in response to the decision of the UN Security
Council to force a vote on a resolution that challenged the decision of
the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
All 15 members of the UN Security Council, except for the United
States, voted in favor of a resolution put forward by Egypt on Monday
that expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of
Jerusalem.” The Egyptian-drafted resolution said “that any decisions
and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or
demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal
effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.” (Emphasis added).
Haley took issue with the attempt by the Security Council to order
the United States to comply with a resolution that would dictate to
America where it placed its embassy in another country. “The fact that
this veto is being done in defense of American sovereignty and in
defense of America’s role in the Middle East peace process is not a
source of embarrassment for us; it should be an embarrassment to the
remainder of the Security Council.”
The Security Council is the most powerful part of the UN because it
is the group that can actually direct action to be taken in the name of
the UN. However, when the UN was formed in 1945, the charter of the UN
stipulated that any one of the five “permanent” members of the Security
Council — the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France,
and China — could veto any resolutions passed by the Council. This was
the first time in six years that the United States has exercised its
veto power.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump fulfilled a campaign
pledge with his decision to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem,
which Israel has long considered its capital. Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu went on his Facebook page to thank Trump and Haley
for the veto.
When Trump announced his intention to move the embassy from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem, his decision was met with opposition from many world
leaders. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, was
particularly incensed because he has been hopeful that East Jerusalem
would be the capital of Palestinian state. He told Trump that the move
will have “dangerous consequences.”
The UN’s Middle East peace envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, cited some of
those “dangerous consequences” just before the vote on the resolution.
“The situation has become more tense with an increase in incidents,
notably rockets fired from Gaza and clashes between Palestinians and
Israeli security forces.”
Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1517 until that empire
was on the losing side of World War I. Beginning in the 1800s, Jews
began purchasing land in Palestine, and joining with the small number of
Jews still living there. Since about 1890, Jews became the majority in
Jerusalem. When the Turks lost the First World War, European nations
took some of the Ottoman Empire, with the British obtaining a mandate in
what was known as Palestine.
In 1948, Israel declared its independence, precipitating the first of
several wars with its Arab neighbors. In 1967, as a result of the
Six-Day War, Israel took over the eastern part of Jerusalem. In 1980,
Israel declared the city its capital. The U.S. Congress later passed a
law recognizing Jerusalem as its capital, but gave presidents the
authority to waive that recognition, declaring the waiver every six
months. Trump finally announced in early December that he would move our
embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which Israel has controlled for 50
years.
Numerous resolutions of the UN General Assembly have denounced
Israel’s move to make Jerusalem its capital, though Jerusalem first
became the capital of Israel about 1,000 years before Christ, and it is
unlikely that Israel would ever give it up voluntarily. Thus, the
stalemate between Israel and its Arab neighbors over the issue is most
likely unresolvable.
During his 2012 campaign for president, Ron Paul stressed the issue
of national sovereignty when he was asked about the “Jerusalem
Question.” Paul replied, “The real issue here is not what America wants,
but what does Israel want. If Israel wants their capital to be
Jerusalem, then the United States should honor that.”
This is the issue that has been largely ignored by the American media
and many American politicians. Now, the UN is not only threatening the
sovereignty of Israel, with its attempted Security Council resolution.
It also attempted to order the United States to waive its national
sovereignty to decide whether our country can place our embassy where we
wish it to be.
When the UN charter was adopted, one of its provisions was that it
would not interfere in the domestic politics of its member nations. Yet,
that is exactly what the UN is attempting to do to both Israel and the
United States. It is a good thing that Trump’s UN ambassador raised the
issue of national sovereignty in vetoing the Security Council
resolution, which attempted to order the United States to change its
policy.
An even better move would be for the Trump administration and
Congress to withdraw our ambassador from the UN, withdraw our nation
from the United Nations, and tell the UN to move its headquarters off
our soil.
_______________________________________________________
TRUMP THREATENS TO CUT AID TO U.N. MEMBERS OVER JERUSALEM VOTE
BY ROBERT SPENCER
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The outcry over this tonight is predictable and immense.
“International bullying,” tweeted Linda Sarsour. Yes, but Trump is the
one who is standing up to it. The idea that the U.S. should subsidize
its enemies and ideological foes is a hallmark of the failed foreign
policy establishment that needs to be thoroughly repudiated.
“Trump threatens to cut aid to U.N. members over Jerusalem vote,” by Roberta Rampton and Michelle Nichols,
Reuters, December 20, 2017:
WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.S. President
Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off financial aid to
countries that vote in favor of a draft United Nations resolution
calling for the United States to withdraw its decision to recognize
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of
dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those
votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” Trump
told reporters at the White House.
The 193-member U.N. General Assembly will hold a rare emergency
special session on Thursday – at the request of Arab and Muslim
countries – to vote on a draft resolution, which the United States
vetoed on Monday in the 15-member U.N. Security Council.
The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the
Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the
United States or Trump but which expressed “deep regret at recent
decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.”
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a letter to dozens of U.N. states on
Tuesday seen by Reuters, warned that Trump had asked her to “report back
on those countries who voted against us.”
She bluntly echoed that call in a Twitter post: “The U.S. will be taking names.”
Several senior diplomats said Haley’s warning was unlikely to change
many votes in the General Assembly, where such direct, public threats
are rare. Some diplomats brushed off the warning as more likely aimed at
impressing U.S. voters.
According to figures from the U.S. government’s aid agency USAID, in
2016 the United States provided some $13 billion in economic and
military assistance to countries in sub-Saharan Africa and $1.6 billion
to states in East Asia and Oceania….
________________________________________________________
UN launches app to “empower” migrants, encourage them to “migrate safely”
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
The International Organization for Migration has launched
‘MigApp’ – a mobile phone app developed to “engage” and “empower”
migrants and help them “migrate safely.”
Big ambitions for an app! Any serious-minded migrant will work with
authorities on settling and integrating, while jihadists and entitled
Islamic supremacists who are out to subjugate the House of War will
merely mock this silly app, in which:
One button directs users to the IOM’s Assisted Voluntary
Return and Reintegration service based across Europe….Another directs
migrants to hundreds of organisations across the world where they can
report people trafficking and “modern slavery” via its “Global Counter
Trafficking Hotlines”.
This app does not really appear to be aimed at migrants at all, but
to capture the minds of more bleeding-heart Westerners through
propaganda. This app will appeal to those who continue to be completely
oblivious to the news from countries in Europe that have experienced a
barrage of Muslim migrants. Those countries have had their foundations
shaken as they experience expanding lawlessness and no-go zones. Their
basic principles have been challenged by their leaders’ acceptance of
barbaric practices in the name of “diversity” and “tolerance.” Their
economies have been weakened due to high levels of sustained
unemployment among Muslim refugees, many (if not most) of whom are not
even seeking employment.
“UN Launches App to ‘Empower’ Migrants, Encourage Them to ‘Migrate Safely’”, by Victoria Friedman,
Breitbart, December 19, 2017:
The International Organization for Migration has launched
‘MigApp’ – a mobile phone app developed to “engage” and “empower”
migrants and help them “migrate safely”.
Introduced on Monday to coincide with International Migrants Day by
the Geneva-based United Nations Migration Agency, MigApp is sold as a
“one-stop-shop” app for migrants and “migrants-to-be” to find “services
relevant to their specific migration process”.
The app descriptor boasts it gives information on migrant rights,
risks, visa regulations, and intends to further the “IOM’s commitment to
the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and
society”, the UN agency hoping that one million migrants will be using
the app by the end of 2018.
The app was launched prominently on the IOM’s website, with press
releases heralding its arrival linking to posters and printable bumper
stickers with a QR code to advertise the service.
Pitched nominally at legal migrants by prompting users to have valid
passports and providing information on visas and immigration processes,
the app is also angled towards non-legal and asylum-seeking migrants.
One button directs users to the IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and
Reintegration service based across Europe as a means of returning failed
asylum seekers and illegal immigrants to their home country, aiding
them to “avoid the stigma of deportation and its negative repercussions”.
Another directs migrants to hundreds of organisations across the
world where they can report people trafficking and “modern slavery” via
its “Global Counter Trafficking Hotlines”.
Aiming to “provide a platform for migrants to share their
experiences” and “connect migrants”, another feature is the “I am a
Migrant” button where users can read stories of legal migrants and
asylum seekers and share their own.
“‘I am a migrant’ is the UN Migration Agency’s campaign to promote
diversity and inclusion of migrants in society. The campaign uses the
testimonials of migrants to connect people with the human stories of
resilience and courage,” the agency explains…..
