Archives
January 12, 2009
Abstention Is Not An Option
"...abstaining [on a UN Security Council vote] comes with its own costs. It also signals timidity," writes John Bolton, who as usual gets it right (see below).
Playing the role of reluctant superpower to an organization devoid of any moral standing (aka the UN) is not only grossly unattractive, but it's downright insulting to the American people.
Make up your mind, Mr. President (and Mr. President-elect), is America for or against democratic nations defending themselves against terrorists?
Abstention is not be an option for the world's only superpower. Mush like that is better left to the Continent whose only contribution to world peace has been Nazism, Fascism, Communism and maybe cheese, i.e., Europe.
The Wall Street Journal | January 12, 2009
The U.S. Votes 'Present' At The U.N.
Usually we stop anti-Israel resolutions.
By John R. Bolton
Last week, the United Nations Security Council adopted a British resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Resolution 1860 was a slap at Israel's self-defense, but, unusually, the United States abstained on the vote.
That's no way to lead. If Washington concluded that a harsh resolution on Gaza was warranted, the proper course was to vote for it. And that is, apparently, what Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had hoped to do. Speaking to the Security Council, Ms. Rice endorsed the basic content of the British draft, saying "this resolution is a step toward our goals." She also said that the U.S. was abstaining to give Egypt's ongoing mediation efforts time to work.
The Palestinian Authority's foreign minister, however, indicates that there may have been another reason. He said publicly Ms. Rice told him just before the vote that... more here.
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Notable Quotables
"Mr. Netanyahu is one of the most media-savvy politicians on the planet. On Friday he appeared live via video link on 'Real Time with Bill Maher,' taking the host’s alternately sardonic and serious line of questioning with gazelle-like alacrity."
~ Anthony Grant, jourrnalist who has written for many major newspapers and worked in television at Paris and Tel Aviv, interviewing former PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, at the outset of Mr. Netanyahu's new book (more here).
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