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from the tactical-advance-away-from-them dept.
The Guardian, The New York Times, Al-Jazeera over the decision of USA and Israel to withdraw from UNESCO over 'anti-Israel bias'
The Guardian
The United States has formally notified the UN's world heritage body Unesco that it is withdrawing its membership of the organisation citing "continuing anti-Israel bias".
The announcement by the Trump administration was followed a few hours later by news that Israel was also planning to quit the financially struggling cultural and educational agency.
...
The body is best known for its world heritage listings of outstanding cultural and natural sites but has often drawn the ire of Israel and the Trump administration for a series of decisions, including the listing of Hebron, a city in the southern part of the occupied Palestinian territories, as a Palestinian world heritage site.
...
Disclosing the US government's decision, the state department said in a statement it would seek to "remain engaged ... as a non-member observer state in order to contribute US views, perspectives and expertise".The statement added: "This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects US concerns with mounting arrears at Unesco, the need for fundamental reform in the organisation, and continuing anti-Israel bias at Unesco," the US state department said. The withdrawal will take effect on 31 December 2018.
The New York Times
The administration also cited mounting arrears at the organization as a reason for the decision.
"We were in arrears to the tune of $550 million or so, and so the question is, do we want to pay that money?" Heather Nauert, a spokeswoman for the State Department, said Thursday at a news briefing. She added, "With this anti-Israel bias that's long documented on the part of Unesco, that needs to come to an end."
...Cultural organizations in the United States criticized the decision, saying Unesco played a key role in preserving vital cultural heritage worldwide.
"Although Unesco may be an imperfect organization, it has been an important leader and steadfast partner in this crucial work," said Daniel H. Weiss, the president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
...
Analysts said that withdrawing from the organization was a significant escalation by the United States in its criticism of United Nations bodies."This is another example of the Trump's administration's profound ambivalence and concern about the way the U.N. is structured and behaves," said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator and adviser in Republican and Democratic administrations.
In July, Unesco declared the ancient and hotly contested core of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as a Palestinian World Heritage site in danger, a decision sharply criticized by Israel and its allies. And in 2015, Unesco adopted a resolution that criticized Israel for mishandling heritage sites in Jerusalem and condemned "Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against freedom of worship."
Al-Jazeera
In a statement announcing its withdrawal, Israel called the US administration's decision "courageous and moral", and accused UNESCO of becoming a "theatre of the absurd".
"The prime minister instructed the foreign ministry to prepare Israel's withdrawal from the organisation alongside the United States," Benjamin Netayanu's office said in a statement.
...Thursday's development demonstrates the US administration's "complete and total bias" towards Israel, says Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, a political party comprising mostly secular intellectuals.
"This behaviour is counterproductive and shameful," he told Al Jazeera by phone. "Sooner or later they will see Palestine in every UN agency. Will the US respond to that by withdrawing from the WHO or the World Intellectual Property Organization? They will be hurting only themselves."
...
Russia's foreign ministry said it regreted the decision, adding that the move would disrupt a number of important projects planned by UNESCO."We share the concern by many countries that the activity of UNESCO has been too politicised lately," the ministry said in a statement.
...
Barghouti, of the Palestinian National Initiative, said it is "as if Israel is dictating US policy not only in the Middle East but also in international organisations."This is going to have a very harmful effect on the idea of the US being a mediator between the Palestinians and the Israelis."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by KiloByte on Monday October 23 2017, @02:25PM (23 children)
You mean, granting to muslim citizens far more rights than they have in neighbouring countries? Or not law-murdering people just because they refuse to worship a particular sky fairy — especially if they dare to admit they have stopped, or, even worse, made someone else stop?
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @02:39PM
Generally world opinion applies different standards when a country claims to be modern and civilised.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 23 2017, @02:59PM (5 children)
Better to serve in Heaven, than reign in Hell, amirite?
No, what you're saying makes total sense. Far better to be a black person in modern South Africa under apartheid than a full citizen of, say, Namibia, right? What were those ungrateful South African black people so upset about, anyway? Didn't they realize how good they had it?
You are further correct in pointing out the followers of the sky-fairy in Israel are so much better [skepchick.org] than others.
Israel is a horrible country with horrible policies. Its people are jerks in person, too. No manners and no consideration for others. The United States should stop all support for them.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Touché) by frojack on Monday October 23 2017, @06:06PM (4 children)
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 23 2017, @07:18PM (3 children)
It looks like you're quoting someone else, but I think you muffed the quote tag so I'll assume you were expressing your thoughts and not quoting someone else...
"Stereotype much?"
Yes, it's a figment of my imagination. Except it's been written up by the BBC [bbc.com] and the New York Times [nytimes.com], both notoriously anti-Semitic rags, right?
So if I say I dislike Belarus, and think they're a horrible country with horrible policies, and whose people are remarkably uncouth and unpleasant to encounter (I don't, but let's say for argument's sake), then to you that automatically means I hate all white people and all Orthodox Christians?
All Jews are not Israelis. In fact, more Jews live in the USA than Israel. So let's hand-wave away Israeli Arabs for a moment and suppose that I was criticizing only Israeli Jews, which would mean I was criticizing a minority of Jews in the world. Hmm, I criticize a minority of Americans called Republicans and Democrats. Does that mean I hate all Americans?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @08:24PM (2 children)
No, only the ones that live between Canada and Mexico.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @02:41AM (1 child)
Over 6 million of us voted for a non-Blue or a non-Red last time around. [wikipedia.org]
...and 42 percent thought that the candidates were so awful that they didn't bother to cast a ballot, even though they were registered.
...and in 1959, USA added 2 states, neither of which is within the boundaries you noted.
...and USA has colonial possessions where residents are USAian citizens.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Tuesday October 24 2017, @12:33PM
But thankfully they were all kind enough to fill in the form on why they didn't vote, thus allowing you to make this thoroughly well-founded statement.
Amazingly enough these voters were completely unanimous in their reasons to not vote: according to the survey results, it was exclusively and only because the candidates were awful in their opinion. There was not a single voter dissenting.
</sarcasm>
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Whoever on Monday October 23 2017, @03:53PM (8 children)
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2017/09/whataboutery-whataboutism/ [oxforddictionaries.com]
Whatever neighboring countries do does not make the political system in Israel good for a modern, advanced nation.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @04:23PM (7 children)
For long-term survival, Israel needs to remove all Muslims from all of the territory it controls.
The current political system does not support this. In time, the Muslim population will grow to the point that they control Israel's parliament. Soon afterward, the Jews are back to being genocided, and "modern" gives way to "7th century".
So the result would not in fact be a modern, advanced nation. That is a failure.
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Monday October 23 2017, @07:48PM (6 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @08:38PM (5 children)
I did write "remove", so there are non-lethal options.
It's unfair for us to say "genocide is unacceptable" while we reap the benefits of killings past. Take the Wounded Knee for example. The lesson is not "oh we are so terrible" but "every successful civilization is built upon a hill of skulls". This has been going on since prehistoric times, so everybody is descended from brutal killers. It's everybody, literally everybody, so don't feel shame for it.
History is not kind to those who refuse to slaughter those who are different.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @08:45PM
Hey! Look! It's Ozy, Ozyman something! History is not kind to those that do slaugher, either. Moron.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 24 2017, @12:02PM (3 children)
The onl way to remove people who say "this is my homeland, my family have lived here for as far back as record began, I have every right to remain here is to remove their life.
You do realise that the arab families in what was former Palestine have typically been resident there longer than the Hbrew families, large proportions of which have taken a big fat wedge off the Israeli government (i.e. the taxpayers, which include the arabs) to move there from Eastern Europe?
> This has been going on since prehistoric times, [...]
But only you on this thread are advocating *continuing* it. This puts you in the same boat as the muslims that everyone's shunning nowadays.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @07:37PM (2 children)
They can be shipped away. Part of the difficulty is that Arab countries have all agreed to refuse to take them. Some may die while resisting capture. Most would not, either because they surrender or because Israel just grabs them. There are countries with slaves. They might take the Palestinians. North Korea and Mauritania are the obvious. Somalia can't really say no, given the relative lack of government. Israel could just dump the Palestinians in Somalia.
It doesn't matter who has been resident longer. Winners get the spoils. Losers can die in a fire.
I'm not going to put on airs of moral superiority, and I don't expect the Israelis to do so either. If the Muslims want to slaughter all infidels, which they do, the sane response is to return the favor. Kill, or be killed. Mere removal might suffice. It's an ugly world, and denial of this fact leads to doom.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday October 25 2017, @11:35AM (1 child)
> I'm not going to put on airs of moral superiority
Clearly not - you're putting on airs of being an amoral fascist.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 26 2017, @04:22AM
Some people's morality seems to ignore similarity or even prefer the dissimilar. They care about total strangers. Sometimes they care about strangers more than they care about their own family. At the extreme there is PETA, caring more about animals than humans. A more common example is white people saying that they hate white people.
For me, the value of a human depends on their relation to me. I expect likewise from others. In many places, I'd be killed. I'm happy to return the favor.
To judge the value of a human, I care about all aspects of similarity. Every aspect of culture matters: religion, social politics, economic politics, language, accent, sex/relationship behavior, etc. Every aspect of DNA matters; do they look like me? I care about my family more than I care about my neighbors, and I care about my neighbors more than I care about some asshole imam/cleric in Yemen.
Also, how would that person feel about me, because generally I tend to want to treat others as they would treat me. It's kind of a slightly-off variant of the golden rule. I go for revenge and preemptive strikes.
For example, the Japanese have been good to America for about 70 years. When they visit, they don't kill us. When we visit, they don't kill us. When they trade with us, they are normally fair enough. I could go for pitching in to help them with a war or other disaster. Things are vaguely similar for Poland. I like them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @05:33PM
Shouldn't they have rights too?
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday October 23 2017, @07:45PM (1 child)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 23 2017, @09:25PM
And part of mainstream Islam's Doctrine is to disrespect all laws that are not derived from the toilet paper... I mean their holy book.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday October 23 2017, @07:51PM (1 child)
> ... neighbouring countries
You mean I should look over there? OK, I did look over there, and now I've completely forgotten Israel was being criticised. Great argumentation sir, you have won!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Touché) by unauthorized on Tuesday October 24 2017, @01:25AM
No, they were not being criticized. Criticism implies some kind of analysis is involved, what we have here is colloquially known as "bitching".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @01:51AM
that's how bush would say it yeah but it's just twisting of facts
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 24 2017, @09:02AM
I think he means by having two classes of citizens - the Jews and everyone else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_identity_card#Question_of_ethnicity [wikipedia.org]
and of course, if you are black, then you are not exactly viewed as a Jew anyway, even if you are.
and then we have serious problems,
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.690403 [haaretz.com]
So please, it's not about other countries, it's about Israel being an apartheid state. This is when policies of the government institutions systematically, and other openly or covertly, favour one group over another. And first step of finding a solution is accepting you have a problem.