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James Zogby Arab DNC Leader Denounces Rachel Ray’s ‘Cultural Genocide’ in Calling Food ‘Israeli’ By Tyler O’Neil

By on December 28th, 2017

James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a member of the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and a board member of the Bernie Sanders think tank The Sanders Institute, denounced a tweet as “cultural genocide.”

Celebrity cook Rachel Ray posted a picture of stuffed grape leaves, hummus, beet dip, eggplant, tabbouli, and sun-dried tomato dip, describing the “holiday feast” as an “Israeli nite.”

This unleashed a storm of controversy, with various commentators claiming the feast was actually “Levantine.”

Zogby jumped into the fray, declaring, “Damn it Rachel Ray. This is cultural genocide. It’s not Israeli food. It’s Arab (Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian). First the Israelis take the land & ethnically cleanse it of Arabs. Now they take their food & culture & claim it’s theirs too! Shame.”Bret Stephens, an op-ed contributor for The New York Times, was aghast. “Please tell me this is a joke tweet, James Zogby,” he tweeted. “Or is it ‘cultural genocide’ when Arabs use Israeli technology? Do you use Instant Messaging? Waze? If so, please stop.”Zogby doubled down. “The equivalent would be if I start using IM & Waze & then declare them Lebanese technology,” he replied. “This isn’t a joke. It’s about a history of cultural appropriation & a systematic effort to erase Palestinian history & culture. Peace is possible, but not on those terms.”

Stephens shot back, “Hummus seems to have first been mentioned as a Cairene food in the 13th century or so. Maybe Maimonides came up with it.” If this suggestion is correct, hummus would be Jewish — as Moses Maimonides was a prominent medieval Jewish philosopher.

“Who knows? Who cares? Why not just enjoy it instead of declaring ‘cultural genocide’ and making a fool of ourself?” Stephens concluded. CONTINUE AT SITE

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An avalanche of embassy moves to Jerusalem begins By Monica Showalter

By on December 27th, 2017

Last week, the Trump administration’s announced that the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv would move to Israel’s actual capital, Jerusalem. As the cognoscenti shrieked, some ten nations are now planning to do the same, in a snowball effect. According to the New York Post:

Israel is in talks with more than 10 countries — including some in Europe — about potentially moving their respective embassies to Jerusalem, according to officials.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Monday said the nations were interested in following President Trump’s footsteps and declaring the Israeli city the new capital in the wake of Guatemala’s recent decision to do so.

Pretty amazing what U.S. leadership will do. The U.S. move provided all ten of those nations plausible cover for moving their nations to Jerusalem after us. Prior to that, they stayed put.

But makes absolutely perfect sense for them to move. Here’s why.

Most nations want nothing to do with the Israel-Palestine conflict and have no influence over its events. They aren’t players, nobody wants their opinion, and they don’t have the expertise or exposure, and it’s none of their business. They are nations however, and nations have interests.

What’s the interest of a tiny nation such as Guatemala or Honduras in the broader conflicts of the Middlee East? Nil. But they do want to develop their countries and draw foreign investment to ensure job creation and a rising standard of living for their locals. One of the best nations for this pursuit of national interest is Israel. Would it not make sense for them to get on Israel’s good side and move their embassies to Jerusalem? The Israelis would be delighted and they would probably bend over backwards to help these nations in achieving their goals.

Israel is such a good ally for any nation to have.

For starters, and little known to the media community, Israel is a high-tech powerhouse to rival Silicon Valley. Other places try to set up Silicon Valleys and flunk but Israel is one of the few places that have really succeeded – and like the original Silicon Valley, there was nothing centrally planned about it. Israel is such a success as a tech powerhouse that some say it is the “brains” of Silicon Valley, given the kinds of outposts all the big tech companies have set up in that country and the kinds of operations (design and software development) they are.

Besides tech, Israelis are also famous problem-solvers — on intractible resource issues such as water and natural gas. Israel, after all, is the nation that made the desert bloom. It’s the nation whose greenery outlines its borders from airline flights. It has no water problems – it exports water. What’s more, with energy an issue in the last decade and fracking and other technologies for extraction rising, Israel has mastered many of these technologies and is poised to develop its great natural gas fields offshore, too.

It’s the can-do country. Case in point: the water problems Ethiopia has been having are being resolved by the Israelis.

Here is some perspective from George Gilder whose book, The Israel Test, is must-reading for understanding why good relations with Israel benefits every nation.

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In the Mideast, Trump Gives Reality a Chance The first step toward peace is to stop indulging the Palestinians’ fantasies of destroying Israel. By Reuel Marc Gerecht

By on December 27th, 2017

A lot of people are in a funk over President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The liberal media, most former government officials who’ve dealt with the Israeli–Palestinian imbroglio, and just about everyone at the United Nations appear certain that the decision had a lot to do with Mr. Trump’s disruptive nature, the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Evangelical Christians and pro-Israel Republican donors.

It’s possible that his decision was based instead on an old-fashioned understanding of the way the world works, one that would be familiar to Middle Easterners: There are winners and losers in every conflict, and Palestinians have decisively lost in their struggle with the Jews of the Holy Land. Diplomacy based on denying reality isn’t helpful.

This view runs smack into the tenets of contemporary conflict resolution, in which diplomacy tries to make losers feels like winners, so that unpleasant compromises, at least in theory, will be easier to swallow. It alleviates the guilt of a Westernized people triumphing over Arabs that has made many in Europe and even the U.S. uncomfortable with Israeli superiority. It also runs counter to an assumption held widely among Western political elites—to wit, quoting the current French ambassador to the U.N.: “Israel is the key to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” Israelis, in this view, must make the big compromises.

The truth is surely the opposite. Recognizing the extent and irreversibility of Palestinian defeat is the first step in the long process of salvaging Palestinian society from its paralyzing morass. Far too many Palestinians still want to pretend they haven’t lost, that the “right of return” and Jerusalem’s unsettled status give hope that the gradual erosion of Israel is still possible. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas tapped a common theme among Palestinians in his recent oration before the Organization of Islamic Cooperation when he complained that Jews “are really excellent in faking and counterfeiting history and religion.”

The biggest problem the Palestinians have is that the Israelis don’t trust them, and the Israelis cannot be ignored, sidestepped, bullied, bombed or boycotted out of eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. Fatah, the lead organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the muscle behind the Palestinian Authority, has often acted publicly as if the Israelis weren’t the foreigners who truly mattered, appealing to Europeans, Russians and Americans to intercede on its behalf. Americans and Europeans have consistently encouraged this reflex by stressing their own role in resolving the conflict, usually by suggesting that they would cajole or push Israelis toward Palestinian positions.

For the Israelis, this has seemed a surreal stage play. The Fatah leadership is well aware that only the Israeli security services have kept the West Bank from going the way of the Gaza Strip, where Fatah’s vastly better-armed forces were easily overwhelmed by Hamas in 2007. Fatah’s secular police state—and that is what the Palestinian Authority is—has proved, so far, no match for Hamas.

Western diplomacy has failed abysmally to recognize the profound split between Palestinian fundamentalists and secularists and played wistfully to the hope that a deeply corrupt Fatah oligarchy could conclude a permanent peace accord with Israel. This delusion’s concomitant bet: Such a deal would terminally weaken Hamas, since the secularists would have finally brought home the mutton. CONTINUE AT SITE

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Guatemala follows U.S. to Jerusalem By Monica Showalter Please see note

By on December 26th, 2017

In 1948 Guatemala’s ambassador to the United States, Jorge Garcia Granados (who was a friend of my father’s) lobbied for recognition of Israel. rsk

Apparently, there was nothing fake or merely symbolic about Guatemala’s support for the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem in its United Nations vote last week. Guatemala is moving its own embassy to Jerusalem, too.

According to the New York Post:

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s president announced on Christmas Eve that the Central American country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump in ordering the change.

Guatemala was one of nine nations that voted with the United States and Israel on Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

It’s enough to turn heads about the tiny Central American nation and give it our salute.

Because it’s rather courageous to be the first to follow the U.S. in places such as the United Nations. Guatemala’s act suggests it wasn’t just looking for goodies from the U.S. when it cast that vote, it really wanted to acknowledge the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Its president, Jimmy Morales, said as much, in his Christmas eve announcement of the event:

“Guatemala is historically pro-Israeli,” he said in Guatemala City. “In 70 years of relations, Israel has been our ally. We have a Christian way of thinking that, as well as the politics of it, has us believing that Israel is our ally and we must ­support it.

“Despite us only being nine in the world (in the UN vote), we have the total certainty and conviction that this is the right path.”

It’s true Guatemala would probably like some development help from Israel but just the fact that they are reaching out for it and not whining about something or other speaks well for them. A willingness to learn from Israel means a nation passes the Israel Test, as the brilliant George Gilder wrote of in his excellent book. Guatemala passes. Another reason too take a second look at Guatemala.
Apparently, there was nothing fake or merely symbolic about Guatemala’s support for the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem in its United Nations vote last week. Guatemala is moving its own embassy to Jerusalem, too.

According to the New York Post:

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s president announced on Christmas Eve that the Central American country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump in ordering the change.

Guatemala was one of nine nations that voted with the United States and Israel on Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

It’s enough to turn heads about the tiny Central American nation and give it our salute.

Because it’s rather courageous to be the first to follow the U.S. in places such as the United Nations. Guatemala’s act suggests it wasn’t just looking for goodies from the U.S. when it cast that vote, it really wanted to acknowledge the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Its president, Jimmy Morales, said as much, in his Christmas eve announcement of the event:

“Guatemala is historically pro-Israeli,” he said in Guatemala City. “In 70 years of relations, Israel has been our ally. We have a Christian way of thinking that, as well as the politics of it, has us believing that Israel is our ally and we must ­support it.

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The Case against Mahmoud Abbas By Dan Calic

By on December 26th, 2017

There’s been plenty of rancor since President Trump declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. Some are saying his remarks have brought the peace process to a halt.

To such accusations I say, “what peace process?”

I submit that if anyone is guilty of why there is no peace process, it is none other than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Unless you are spelling it p-i-e-c-e. The record shows that rather than p-e-a-c-e with Israel, he wants to take it apart piece by piece until it doesn’t exist anymore. In order to present the case, I will lay out the evidence to the court of public opinion.

Exhibit 1- Munich Olympics

Who will ever forget the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre where 11 Israeli athletes were held hostage by Arab terrorists and lost their lives. The financier of the operation was Mahmoud Abbas.

Exhibit 2- Holocaust Denial

In 1982, he wrote his PhD thesis entitled: “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism.” The topic was denial of the Holocaust. Such views are associated with anti-Semitism. Aside from Israel, 21 countries have made Holocaust denial a crime. The United States does not criminalize it.

In January 2005, he was elected to a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority. Here’s a short list of what’s taken place during his never-ending four-year term:

Exhibit 3- Rejects Recognition of Jewish State

While several Israeli prime ministers, including Benjamin Netanyahu have acknowledged acceptance of a ‘Palestinian’ state, Abbas has repeatedly said he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Demanding recognition of a Palestinian state while rejecting Israel’s right to exist proves he is not serious about peace. Moreover, he has no business talking about a “just solution. Most recently Abbas challenged Israel’s right to be recognized as a state by the international community saying it is “invalid.”

Exhibit 4- Right of Return

Abbas demands the “right of return,” for so-called “refugees” from the 1948 and 1967 wars, along with their descendants. Their numbers vary, but suffice to say this would eliminate the Jewish majority in Israel. Thus the only homeland the Jewish people have would cease to exist as such, and become the Middle East’s 23rd Muslim Arab-dominated country while the Jews would have none.

Exhibit 5- No Jews Allowed in Future Palestinian State

There are well over 1 million Arabs who live in Israel with full benefits of citizenship. They vote, own businesses, own property, are doctors, lawyers, professors, etc. They are elected to the Knesset and have even been members of the Supreme Court. They also have complete freedom of worship. There are mosques throughout Israel. Yet Abbas says not one Israeli [Jew], civilian or soldier will be tolerated in any future Palestinian state. Ironically, he’s accused Israel of being an ‘apartheid state.’

Exhibit 6- Fatah Constitution

He is head of the Fatah Party. Their constitution calls for the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL

By on December 24th, 2017

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Growing his leg from his own fat cells. I reported previously (27th Aug) about tech from Israel’s Bonus Bio used to repair bone loss in the arm of a patient at Emek hospital in Afula. Now another patient at Emek has had groundbreaking surgery to regrow part of a shin bone using bone tissue grown from his own fat cells.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-world-first-israeli-undergoes-surgery-to-regrow-a-bone/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdO_YM2qGMc

Good results for Acute Leukemia treatment. Israel’s BioSight has announced positive results of the Phase 1/2 study of its lead product BST-236, a novel cytarabine pro-drug, as a single agent for induction therapy in acute leukemia patients. It was effective on many patients who had failed with previous standard therapy.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biosight-announces-phase-ii-results-135600604.html

Oxygen treatment for Alzheimer’s. I reported previously (twice) of Israeli use of hyperbaric (high pressure) oxygen to treat many medical conditions from chronic pain to strokes. Now Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered that it can also ameliorate symptoms experienced by people with Alzheimer’s disease.
https://www.israel21c.org/hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-could-ease-alzheimers-symptoms/

New treatment for NASH. (TY Atid-EDI) Israeli biotech ChemomAb has developed a monoclonal antibody designed to treat fibrotic and inflammatory diseases. The antibody’s first target is nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), known also as fatty liver disease. ChemomAb has just raised $10 million of funds.
http://chemomab.com/2016/02/28/lead-agent/

Fast-track for migraine treatment. Israel’s Teva has been granted fast-track status for fremanezumab, an anti-calcitonin gene-related peptide (anti-CGRP) monoclonal antibody developed for the preventive treatment of migraine. It also applies to the prevention of cluster headaches, which are similar to migraines in symptoms.
http://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/teva-wins-fda-application-acceptance-for-fremanezumab/2017/12/18/

Infection treatment now to target the kidneys. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported previously (several times) on Israel’s Atox Bio and its Reltecimod treatment for Necrotizing Soft Tissue Infections. Atox Bio has just raised $30 million to fund trials of Reltecimod in Acute Kidney Injury patients, for which there is no current cure.
http://www.atoxbio.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Press-release-Dec-2017-series-F.pdf

Four new UK-Israel stem cell projects. The Britain Israel Research and Academic Exchange (BIRAX) program is investing £1.5 million in four stem cell projects to tackle diabetes, heart disease, leukemia and Alzheimer’s disease. The Israeli organizations are Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University and the Technion.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/four-uk-israel-stem-cell-projects-nab-1-5-million-in-funding/

UK award for Israeli antibiotic resistance research. Israel’s Team Prismatix – combining scientists at Israel’s Technion Institute and Bnai Zion Medical Center – has won a Discovery Award for its research into rapid diagnostics for antibiotic resistance. The awards are part of the UK Nesta Foundation’s Longitude Prize challenge program. https://www.israel21c.org/israelis-win-uk-award-for-antibiotic-resistance-research/

Space program polymer used for orthopedic surgery. Orthopedic surgeons at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center have performed hip and knee replacements using MP1 – a material developed in Israel for NASA’s space program. MP1 was originally developed by Aliza Buchman for the Israel start-up M.M.A Tech.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-space-age-material-used-in-pioneering-hip-knee-replacement/

New emergency control center. Israel’s Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, inaugurated the national dispatch and command center for United Hatzalah at the organization’s national headquarters in Jerusalem. The center will ensure that EMS volunteer responders are sent to the emergencies that are closest to their location.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/minister-erdan-inaugurates-united-hatzalahs-national-dispatch-and-command-center-in-israels-capital/

One paramedic, one bike, 2,500 calls, 300 lives saved. In his four years as a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, Meir Farkash has responded to more than 2,500 emergency calls (over 300 life-threatening) on his personal bicycle. In his honor, the residents of Meir’s home town Ramat Hasharon donated an e-bicycle for him to use.
https://israelrescue.org/blog/bicycle-responder-of-ramat-hasharon-who-saved-2500-people-recognized-by-community/

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Palestinians: Another “Reconciliation” Bites the Dust by Khaled Abu Toameh

By on December 23rd, 2017

The idea that Hamas would disarm and stop digging tunnels and hand the Gaza Strip on a silver platter to Abbas and Fatah is pure fantasy.

Westerners are either ignorant and naïve or they are willfully deluding themselves.

Hamas simply cannot accept a situation where it is being asked to accept the so-called two-state solution….As made clear by the Hamas leaders, their goal remains to seek the “liberation of all of Palestine, from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river.” This is Hamas’s mantra.

For more than two months, the Hamas-Fatah “reconciliation” agreement that was reached in Cairo in October has been hailed by many Arabs and Westerners as a sign that the Palestinians were finally marching forward together.

It turns out, however, that the dramatic announcement of the agreement, which was reached with the sponsorship of the Egypt, was all a bluff.

Those in the know about the Palestinian world predicted that the latest “reconciliation” deal would fail. At least five previous agreements between Hamas and Fatah, reached under the auspices of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Yemen over the past ten years, likewise failed. Every one of these agreements was stillborn, not worth the time it took to uncap the pen.

The latest “reconciliation” agreement, then, has just joined this impressive list of defunct accords. Moreover, it is not too speculative to suggest that any truce struck in the foreseeable future between Hamas and Fatah would also swiftly join its predecessors in the graveyard of agreements.

So, why do these “reconciliation” agreements between the two rival Palestinian parties keep failing? Why has it become impossible for the Palestinians to reunite themselves and work together for the sake of a better life for their people? Who is responsible for the divisions and internal bickering among the Palestinians and who are the biggest losers and winners from the continued power struggle between Hamas and Fatah?

These questions prod at one as Palestinian leaders continue to call for “days of rage” and incite their people in response to President Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The small protests that have swept some parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (but were exaggerated by mainstream media in the West) served as a distraction from the failure of Hamas and Fatah to implement their “reconciliation” agreement.

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The Karaoke State of Palestine by Nidra Poller

By on December 23rd, 2017

Palestine

The very word is so tasty. Just saying it-the State of Palestine-is enough to bring into being this imaginary state with neat little houses on tree-lined streets, municipal buildings, bus stations, a brand new airport, and the capital in “East” Jerusalem, the imaginary holy land, the Jerusalem of Palestine, a cut-and-paste of Their Jerusalem. But without Them.

The simple recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel-officially declared by Congress in 1995, confirmed by geographic and geopolitical realities, and now consummated by President Trump-unleashes a torrent of disapproval and threats. The disciples of international law chant promises of violence, stamped with the moral authority of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran’s Rouhani.

Unilateral declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel? It’s blasphemy! Shameful disrespect for international law. It’s reckless! Putting the cart before the horse, tossing a match into the powder keg, and pouring oil on the fire! Is Trump out of his mind? He’s destabilizing the delicate balance of the shaky Middle East. What’s become of the table where the promised talks should be held? The peace process was almost nearly ready to resume, and now it’s doomed! And so it goes: the revisionists are busy reconstructing the past with shopworn lies, and the multilateralists have decreed the irreversible isolation of the United States, guilty as charged.

One thing is certain: all hell will break lose. In fact, the shababs, by tens and by twenties, went back to their old game, complete with keffieh-face masks, sling shots and rocks, flaming tires, stereotyped theatrics. They go round in circles, scatter in the jet stream of water cannons, cry in clouds of tear gas, do their act, and run back home.

Reality

Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem is a reality. The two-state-solution with “East” Jerusalem as capital of Palestine is a fake proposal. But there is a real proposal facing off with the Jewish Jerusalem. It’s an Islamic Jerusalem.

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The international community and the liberal media Caroline Glick

By on December 22nd, 2017

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley glared at her colleagues at the UN Security Council Monday as she cast the lone nay vote against a draft resolution presented by Egypt to nullify US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. http://carolineglick.com/the-international-community-and-the-liberal-media/

Haley then berated her UN colleagues for their assault against US sovereignty and for their prolonged efforts to delegitimize Israel and blame the Jewish state for the absence of peace. In her words, “The United States refuses to accept the double standard that says we are not impartial when we stand by the will of the American people by moving our US embassy, but somehow the United Nations is a neutral party when it consistently singles out Israel for condemnation.”

The liberal media, led by The New York Times chastised her.

“Punctuating America’s increasing international isolation, the United Nations Security Council demanded on Monday that the Trump administration rescind its decisions to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to put the United States Embassy there,” the Times wrote in a purported news article.

While attacking Trump and Haley for isolating the US, the Times and its colleagues failed to explain what an international community-aligned US foreign policy looks like.

Notably, just such a policy and its consequences were the subject of a 15,000-word investigative report published Monday morning by Politico.

“The secret backstory of how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook,” by Josh Meyer, detailed how in the interest of advancing a policy supported by the international community, then president Barack Obama imperiled US public health, national security and its allies.

As Meyer recalled, Obama entered office in 2009 promising to turn over a new leaf with Iran.

By promising to turn over a new leaf in US-Iran relations, Obama signaled his belief that the sorry state of those relations was America’s fault. Because if it wasn’t America’s fault, then no American president could change the situation.

Obama’s assumption was entirely wrong.

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Eight Countries Stand with U.S. as UN Condemns Recognition of Jerusalem By Bridget Johnson see note please

By on December 22nd, 2017

Even more important than the nations that voted with the United States, are those that abstained, which included many African nations that formerly voted against Israel in lock step with all Arab states-Togo voted no, and Rwanda, Malawi, Uganda, Lesotho, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan abstained. Kenya was absent. Looking ahead it may be a nascent trend….rsk

The United Nations General Assembly today voted to condemn the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and demand that all member nations comply with UN Security Council resolutions on the status of the city.

The emergency special session vote was scheduled after the U.S. used its veto power to block a similar resolution at the Security Council on Monday. There is no veto power in the General Assembly.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley warned that America would be “taking names” of countries who voted against the United States. President Trump said Wednesday, “They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

The final vote was 128 in favor of the resolution, nine against and 35 abstentions. The “no” votes came from the U.S., Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Togo, Honduras, and Guatemala. Britain voted in favor of the resolution, while Canada and Mexico abstained.

Explaining the UK’s stance at the Security Council earlier this week, UK Ambassador to the UN Matthew Rycroft said Washington’s move was “unhelpful to the prospects for peace in the region, an aim that all of us in this Council remain committed to — the British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it.”

Unlike votes in the Security Council, General Assembly resolutions are non-binding. Today’s resolution calls on all states to “comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem, and not recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions.”

Haley said today at the General Assembly that she’s “often wondered why, in the face of such hostility, Israel has chosen to remain a member of this body.”

“And then I remember that Israel has chosen to remain in this institution because it’s important to stand up for yourself. Israel must stand up for its own survival as a nation, but it also stands up for the ideals of freedom and human dignity that the United Nations is supposed to be about,” she said. CONTINUE AT SITE

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