U.S. Bigoted Foolishness on Global Display — American Statutes Forced the Administration to Halt UNESCO’s American Funding because the U.N. Agency Admitted Palestine as a Member — the Obama Administration Worsened this Ethically Unattractive Mess by Pretending It’s All the Palestinians’ Fault

© 2011 Peter Free

 

04 November 2011

 

 

The United States cut off funding to UNESCO on 31 October because the United Nations agency recognized Palestine as a member state

 

The Administration “had” to do this because U.S. law said it must.

 

 

America’s anti-Palestinian statutes

 

What do you think of these two bits of statutory bigotry?  They’ve been lying around for 17 and 21 years:

 

Limitation on Contributions to the United Nations and Affiliated Organizations

 

Pub.L. 103-236, Title IV, § 410, Apr. 30, 1994, 108 Stat. 454 (103rd Congress, 4/30/94), provided that: “The United States shall not make any voluntary or assessed contribution—

 

“(1) to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, or

 

“(2) to the United Nations, if the United Nations grants full membership as a state in the United Nations to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood, during any period in which such membership is effective.”

 

and

 

Membership of the Palestine Liberation Organization in United Nations Agencies

Pub.L. 101-246, Title IV, § 414, Feb. 16, 1990, 104 Stat. 70 (101st Congress, 2/16/90), provided that:

 

“(a) Prohibition.--No funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.

 

“(b) Transfer or reprogramming.--Funds subject to the prohibition contained in subsection (a) which would be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof (but for that prohibition) are authorized to remain available until expended and may be reprogrammed or transferred to any other account of the Department of State or the Agency for International Development to carry out the general purposes for which such funds were authorized.”

 

 

A not so small point about self-aggrandizing subjectivity

 

Notice that “internationally recognized attributes of statehood” (in the first of the two laws) is a subjective assessment.

 

It is a particularly obnoxious one because the United States gets to withhold recognition from any people(s) it dislikes and then can use that failure to be recognized as evidence that the incipient nation “ain’t ready.”

 

 

These laws are good examples of unreasoned and codified past hatred causing future trouble

 

There is absolutely no way that cutting off funding to the United Nations is going to work to the United States’ geopolitical benefit.

 

It is clear from UNESCO’s overwhelming vote to support Palestine that the United States and Israeli are clinging to a Zionist-favoring past that no longer exists.

 

Israel’s admittedly provoked, but lamentably pig-headed serial willingness to use disproportionate force against the Palestinians has finally come back to bite both it and America.

 

 

The larger picture — now that we’ve shot ourselves in both feet, what next?

 

With the withdrawal of American money from UNESCO (and presumably whichever other UN agencies will follow suit), the United States is simply escalating the wrong-headedness that characterizes our foreign policy generally.

 

 

The moral? — we get nowhere by continuing to be aggressively stupid — we just get our troops killed

 

Subverting the United Nations’ attempts to do its legitimate good works — simply because “we” did not get our mistaken way in discriminating against Palestinians’ justly sought nationhood — guarantees that America looks like a dangerous and idiot nation to sane people almost everywhere else.

 

Being mean-spirited and stupid at the same time is not a good way to lead.  It’s not even a good way to survive.

 

The next time we shoot of our unreasoning mouth, let’s at least think about the impact on our troops’ welfare.

 

The United States does not exist to support a Zionist-ically imperial Israel.  Acting as we do means that we’re going to get dragged into conflicts that have nothing legitimate to do with our chosen destiny as Freedom’s Light.