November 02, 2011
After UNESCO voted to
give the Palestinians full membership, the words of State Department
spokeswoman Victoria Nuland contained a hint that the Obama administration at
the highest levels is quite seriously concerned about the possible consequences
for America of cutting off funds to the UN agency as required by Zionist lobby
driven law enacted by Congress.
The U.S. funds about 22
percent of UNESCO’s budget or roughly $80 million annually; and $60 million was
scheduled to be sent this month.
Most of Nuland’s shortish
statement would have been sweet music to the Zionist lobby’s ears.
“Today’s vote by the member states of UNESCO to admit Palestine as a member is regrettable, premature, and undermines our shared goal of a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East.“The United States remains steadfast in its support for the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state (what nonsense, I add), but such a state can only be realized through direct negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians (again what nonsense).“The United States also remains strongly committed to robust multilateral engagement across the UN system. However, Palestinian membership as a state in UNESCO triggers longstanding legislative restrictions which will compel the United States to refrain from making contributions to UNESCO.”
But the end words of
Nuland’s statement (presumably reflecting her mistress’s views) would not have
been so comforting for the Zionist lobby.
“U.S. engagement with UNESCO serves a wide range of our national interests on education, science, culture, and communications issues. The United States will maintain its membership in and commitment to UNESCO and we will consult with Congress to ensure that U.S. interests and influence are preserved.”
One possible implication
of the words emphasized is that President Obama and perhaps even Secretary of
State Clinton have looked into the future and realized that if America did
default on its obligations to UNESCO, there could be moves to suspend or even
expel it from the agency.
Probably many misinformed
Americans would welcome that happening, but it would be bad for America’s image
in the world. The further implication is that President Obama is at least
thinking about trying to persuade Congress to untie his hands on the matter of
cutting off funds to UNESCO with the argument that it’s not actually in
America’s own best interests to do so.
That, it seems, is what
Zionism’s First Lady in Congress fears. (We’ll get to who she is in a
moment).
Her response to Nuland’s
words on behalf of the State Department was the following:
“This is no time for the U.S. to back down… Congress must pass pending UN reform legislation to cut off funding to any UN entity that grants any upgraded status to ‘Palestine’. Such strong action is the only way to deter other UN bodies from following in UNESCO’s footsteps, and to prevent U.S. taxpayer dollars from paying for biased entities at the UN.”
In passing I have to say
that I never cease to be amazed by the mind-blowing hypocrisy of almost all
Americans in positions of political power. By far the most biased entity at the
UN is the United States of America.
The Zionist lobby’s First
Lady in Congress is the Cuban-American born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Her maternal
grandparents were Sephardic Jews from Turkey who became active in Cuba’s Jewish
community. Her mother converted to Catholicism.
She was the first
Republican to be elected to the House of Representatives from Florida and she
is today the chairwoman of its Foreign Affairs Committee. In that capacity she
introduced the bill to cut off US funding to any UN organization that recognizes
Palestinian statehood. She also advocates cutting funding to the Lebanese Armed
Forces and the West Bank and Gaza.
That’s on the one hand.
On the other is the fact
that one of her major campaign funders was Irving Moskowitz, a Florida
businessman who is a major funder of illegal Israeli settlements on the
occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem.
Also a fact is that the J
Street lobby group called on her to return campaign contributions from him
because, it said, “he actively works to de-rail the chances for a two-state
solution.”
Against that background
it was entirely logical that she would take (as she did) the lead in demanding
that the Obama administration
“halt its condemnations of an indispensable ally and friend of the United States.”
Once upon a time it was
only those seeking to be elected on the Democratic ticket who felt the need to
kiss the Zionist lobby’s bottom. Now the Republicans are at it, too.
What chance does any
American president have of confronting this lobby in order to be able to put
American’s own real and best interests first?
My answer (I never tire
of giving it) is
no chance unless and
until
enough American voters
are informed enough
to call and hold their
Congressmen and women to account.
Footnote
Ros-Lehtinen’s history
indicates that she is a fan of targeted assassinations, so presumably on this
matter she thinks Obama is doing a better job than George “Dubya” Bush.
She appeared very briefly
in 638 Ways to Kill Castro, a Channel 4 documentary film broadcast in
the UK on 28 November 2006. It told the story of some of the many attempts by
the CIA to kill the Cuban leader. Her contribution included this:
“I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro and any leader who is oppressing the people.”
When a 28-second clip of
her saying that was circulated on the internet, she denied it by claiming that
the production team had misrepresented her by splicing clips to make the sound
bite.
Director Dollan Cannell
then released the unedited tapes of the interview with her, proving that she
had twice welcomed an attempt on Castro’s life.
It was the production
team that had been misrepresented by her, not the other way round. Cannel asked
for an apology but he didn’t receive one.
An inability to say sorry
is, of course, one of the hallmarks of all who support Israel right or wrong.
i definitely enjoyed the pushback spokeswitch nuland got frm 2 AP reporters...
ReplyDeletevia xymphora, via mondoweiss
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/11/you-lost-reporters-at-state-say-unesco-vote-isolates-u-s-from-world-opinion-and-possibly-from-intellectual-property-enforcement.html
finally 2 AP reporters w/balls... haven't seen such since the exit of helen thomas...