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Fishie: Vetoing the resolution wonât shake my boomersâ resolve.

Hat tip LGF
Yasser Arafat dismissed the United Statesâ veto of a U.N. resolution against Israelâs threats to expel him, saying Wednesday that the step will not "shake us." Arabs expressed anger, saying Israel may see the veto as a green light to move against the Palestinian leader.
And your point is?
Washington says it opposes expelling Arafat from the West Bank. But it said the U.N. resolution calling for Israel to halt its threats was "lopsided" and didnât condemn terrorist groups attacking Israel.
Of course not! Israelsâs as close to a free country as you can find in the ME. The UN hates that!
Arabs were dismayed by the veto, with some saying the vote showed the United States had lost its credibility as an honest broker in the Middle East.
So has the UN.
Arafat, speaking to supporters at his West Back headquarters in Ramallah, dismissed the American move. "No decision here or there will shake us," he said. "We are bigger than all decisions."

"We have delusions of grandeur!"

"Except for the decision that we must continue Abu Aliâs work."
Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian foreign minister, said U.S. officials "informed us officially" that the veto "is not in any way a green light for Israel."
"Hamas will show them."
But that did not reassure many in the Arab world. "The pretext saying that the draft resolution was unbalanced is baseless," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Wednesday. Maher echoed concern Israel might see the vote as a license to go after Arafat. He said that if nations donât pressure Israel to desist from its "provocative and aggressive" policies, it would show the international communityâs "powerlessness." Syriaâs U.N. Ambassador Fayssal Mekdad expressed regret at the veto, calling it "extremely regrettable" and warning that it "will antagonize the feeling of Arabs in the region.
We antagonized them by prospering while free!
Syria, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, had been pressing for a vote since last weekâs decision by Israelâs security Cabinet to "remove" Arafat in a manner and time to be decided. Israel blames Arafat for sabotaging the peace process and doing nothing to prevent terrorist attacks.
And for aiding and abetting the terrorists, to boot.
The Palestinians had generated wide global support for the resolution. Of the 15 Security Council members, 11 voted Tuesday in favor of the resolution. Britain, Germany and Bulgaria abstained. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said the resolution did not contain a condemnation of terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, blamed for several suicide attacks against Israel. He said, "It was lopsided and ... it didnât take into account the elements we thought it ought to take into account, including a robust criticism of Palestinian terrorism." But Arabs warned the U.S. blocking of the resolution undermined its positions in the Middle East, where many see Washington as favoring Israel. "Clearly this is not a neutral position," Ziad Abu Amr, a member of the outgoing Palestinian Cabinet, said.
"Neutral means supporting a second Holocaust," he added.
Senior Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rdneh told reporters the veto could jeopardize the U.S-backed "road map" for Mideast peace. The vote "is a real encouragement for the Israelis to continue their escalation," he said.

"Jeopardize" the road map? His lips are moving, words are coming out of his mouth, but they don't make any sense...

Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Palestinian U.N. observer, said the United States lost its credibility to play an honest broker in the Middle East peace process. He warned that "serious consequences may follow."

As opposed to... ummm... the serious situation we now have.

In Jordan, the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said it was not surprised at the U.S. veto because "the Zionist lobby ... controls the American policy in the Middle East."
"YEEAAAGGH! Ar lifs fell off!"
The Israeli threats against Arafat brought criticism from around the world â and warnings not to carry out the move. Criticism against Israel mounted after Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that killing Arafat was an option, although the foreign minister later backtracked on the remark.
Shit.
Last Friday, the 15 council members â including the United States â agreed on a press statement expressing "the view that the removal of chairman Arafat would be unhelpful and should not be implemented." The rejected draft resolution would have demanded "that Israel, the occupying power, desist from any act of deportation and to cease any threat to the safety of the elected president of the Palestinian Authority
So the UN has decieved itself into thinking Arafish was elected.
It would have condemned Israelâs targeted assassinations of militant leaders and Palestinian suicide bombings, "all of which caused enormous suffering and many innocent victims." It would also have called for a cessation of "all acts of terrorism, provocation, incitement and destruction."
What it would boil down to: "Heil Haman"
Israelâs U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman said after Tuesdayâs vote that the resolution "did not focus on terrorism killing innocent men, women and children and killing in the process the hopes for peace" and "did not focus on the clear legal responsibility of the Palestinian leadership to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure."
Heâs right. As I said, Arafish has helped the terrorists.
The last veto of a Mideast resolution was also by the United States on Dec. 20, 2002 â an Arab-backed resolution condemning Israel for the killings of three U.N. workers that U.S. officials termed one-sided. Britainâs Emry Jones Parry called on Israel not to construe the vote as an endorsement of its action and said the international community had rejected Israelâs threat against Arafat.
Posted by: Katz 2003-09-17

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