Al-Ahram Weekly Online 20 - 26 December 2001 Issue No.565
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue | Previous issue | Site map

Made in America

What can the US have sought to tell the Arab world this week when it vetoed a Security Council resolution to protect Palestinians under Israeli occupation? Using its veto for the second time this year to protect Israel, the US rejected the resolution co-sponsored by Egypt and Tunisia.

Modified several times to satisfy the US, the resolution condemned "all acts of terror, in particular those targeting civilians, executions without trial, excessive use of force and destruction of property." It also encouraged "all concerned parties to establish a monitoring mechanism" in the occupied territories and affirmed support for Yasser Arafat as the elected leader of the Palestinian people. Yet the US rejected even this moderate language, on the grounds that it ignored Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

After 11 September, many commentators wrung their hands, wailing the same question over and over: "Why do they hate us?" Analysts and US officials claimed non- Americans hated them "because of what we are and what we represent" -- freedom and democracy, for instance. But that is not the case.

The weapons Israel uses to kill Palestinians are American. The Israeli economy would not survive without US support. Israel would not continue to violate every single international agreement if not for US backing and the American veto in the Security Council.

At the UN, 12 of the 15 Security Council members approved the resolution, with Britain and Norway abstaining. The US, in other words, is alone in refusing to protect the Palestinians. It cannot continue to ignore that fact.

The US desperately needs Arab backing in its ongoing war against "terrorism." By hindering any effort to protect Palestinians from the Israeli slaughter campaign, however, it has made sympathy, let alone support, impossible.

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