UN Walkout Does Not Absolve World For Failure to Confront Israel
22:57 GMT 30.09.2024 (Updated: 05:25 GMT 01.10.2024)
© AP Photo / Mary Altaffer
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On Friday, dozens of UN diplomats walked out of the hall ahead of a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The imagery of Netanyahu giving a speech to a mostly empty room was striking but has not had any appreciable effect on Israel’s military campaigns.
Even more than Israel itself, the United States and most of the world have been unmasked by their support or indifference to the Israeli genocide in Palestine and their aggression in Lebanon and Yemen.
“That’s kind of the least any state can officially do. Walk out of a speech, it’s a symbolic measure, yes,” argued Esteban Carrillo, a Lebanese-based journalist and editor for The Cradle on Sputnik’s Fault Lines. “It doesn’t really change anything. It doesn’t change any realities. And the bombs that have been dropped in Lebanon, they are US-made.”
As Netanyahu gave his speech to the UN, which he called a “cesspit of antisemitism,” US-made bombs continued to drop on the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
“These are USA bombs that are destroying the capital of a UN member state,” exclaimed Carrillo. “When they killed the late leader of [Lebanese Shia movement] Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, they dropped about 82 bunker-buster bombs in a heavily populated area of south Beirut.”
Israel has defended its actions in Lebanon by repeating their justifications for Gaza only substituting Hezbollah for Hamas. They have justified attacks on schools and civilian areas by claiming, often without evidence, that militants were using the area as a headquarters.
“We really need to put this into perspective, right? There needs to be a response from the rest of the world, because if they sat on their hands while [Israel] killed so many Palestinians, can we expect them to do the same for the Lebanese?” Asked Carrillo.
On Monday, Israel announced that it had started cross-border raids into Lebanon with special forces ahead of an expected full ground invasion. Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced that the United States will send a “few thousand” more troops to the Middle East if Israel needs assistance.
30 September, 21:14 GMT
“The Israeli leadership… They are not shy. They are very straightforward about what they want,” argued Carrillo. “The US government, I think, more than Israel, the one that has been unmasked over the past year because they are so good at putting out statements, of suppressing their anger, of calling Netanyahu names, or just saying things, right? They are very good with the words. With actions, they are nowhere to be found. And it’s the same for the EU.”
“And it’s the same for many other powers, let’s be honest. Even here in the region, Turkiye, who is constantly calling Netanyahu a Nazi and comparing him to Hitler, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan] does that often,” Carrillo recalled. “But then, Turkiye could at any point just cut off the gas flow, for example, to Israel if they really wanted to, but they don’t want to. They don’t want to. It’s the same for the Gulf countries. It seems that countries like Palestine, or Lebanon, or Syria, or now even Yemen, they struck that yesterday… They’re just ‘do what you want with them. We don’t care about them so much. What we care about is keeping up relations with Israel.’ Why? Because [Israel is] an extension of the United States.”
Even countries like Iran, which have been directly hit by Israel, have declined to strike back in any significant way. However, Carrillo argues that Iran deserves credit for being at the head of the resistance to American imperialism and the Zionist state.
“Iran has been behind most of these movements for most of the existence of the Islamic Revolution. Iran is a country that has been under sanctions for 50 years or more at this point. Why? Because they stand against the US imperial project and because they stand against the Zionist state and what they have done to the Palestinians,” Carrillo continued. “So, if Iran has been paying a price, do they want to pay another price now? Maybe not.”
While Carrillo said he does feel some sense of abandonment from the Lebanese people, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Iran. “If you see Iran stepping into this particular conflict, you’re going to see the US step [up] as well. And then you’re going to see things go really sideways, not just for us in Lebanon or the people in Palestine or the people in Syria or Iraq or Yemen, but absolutely everyone.
“So would I like Iran to have stepped in already? Yes, I would have. 100 percent I would have because I would not like to see this country destroyed like the way that it has. But also, I don’t want to see a third world war.”
Which is the choice the US has thrust on the world with its steadfast support of Israel. Either look away from genocide and unfettered military aggression or kick off World War III.
“And sadly, there’s no one to stop them besides these groups, such as Hezbollah, such as Hamas, such as Ansar Allah [aka Houthi] in Yemen,” concluded Carrillo. “[Those] are really the only ones standing up to this genocidal regime.”
