At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.
---Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations
I don't know where you stand on Israel, Palestine, and all of the controversies that surround them. I'll tell you where I stand, though. I feel that there has been a horrible double standard going on for the last seventy years between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs that the world in general has been getting away with...and I think the reason has more to do with widespread anti-Semitism and hatred for the Jewish state than any professed sympathies for the Palestinians. And whether you like it or not, Israel is a viable nation with the right to establish its capital anywhere on its territory...and they decided to make Jerusalem that capital city many years ago. Past American presidents had promised to recognize it as well but backed down...but not Donald Trump, who clearly and repeatedly promised to the American people during the 2016 campaign that he would recognize the Israeli capital. And yesterday the United Nations held a vote to condemn the United States of America for simply acknowledging reality...
The non-binding resolution condemning the United States for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital carried 128-9, with 35 abstentions. America's traditional adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, and others predictably voted against the US as also did European Union countries and those with majority Muslim populations. Only the US, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, and a number of small Pacific island nations opposed the measure. Canada, Mexico, and a number of Central American and Caribbean countries (excluding Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Cuba) voted to abstain...
Ever since the United Nations General Assembly voted in 1975 for a resolution equating Zionism with racism, it has been obvious that Israel would never get a fair shake in that body...true, they did manage to repeal that outrageous decision sixteen years later. But with this action on the part of the American president, we're talking about the U.N. taking my country to task for making what I see as a perfectly legitimate decision, one that is really nobody's else's business...Turkey's planning to move its Palestinian embassy to East Jerusalem, so what? I absolutely agree with the above December 19th Twitter post by Ambassador Haley: many of these countries are quite content to receive their millions of dollars of aid at American taxpayers' expense and feel unaccountable for their own behavior toward us in return...it's about time we changed the rules here. And if you've read this blog for any length of time, you already know that I am no fan of the current president. Still, on this one issue he's right...
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It's not the decision to move the embassy that's so disturbing, it's the "my way or the highway" attitude that American is taking. To think that it's wrong for other countries to have an opinion which doesn't laud the US does not make for reliable allies. And who can blame countries for abstaining in order not to poke a stick at the angry beast? But a fear of reprisal is not a good basis for co-operation amongst those who are supposed to be your allies.
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