September, 30 2008, 03:30pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020;
or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Is McCain's 'League of Democracies' an Attempt to Kill the UN?
WASHINGTON
During the first presidential debate, Sen. John McCain repeatedly
referred to his proposal for a "League of Democracies." The following
analysts have followed this proposal and can assess it:
THOMAS CAROTHERS
Director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carothers wrote the policy brief "Is a League of Democracies a Good Idea?"
Earlier this year he wrote in a piece in the Washington Post:
"A puzzle of globalization is that despite the astonishing growth in
communication and information flows, Washington lives in a bubble,
seeing the world through its own lens, being surprised and disappointed
again and again when the world does not conform to U.S. expectations.
President Bush's foreign policy is a study in the bubble approach... In
this regard, the declarations and debates about foreign policy in the
presidential campaign so far are not especially reassuring. One of the
most visible proposals, the calls by experts on both sides of the
political aisle and by Sen. John McCain for the establishment of a
League of Democracies to tackle the world's problems, is an example of
continued thinking within the bubble."
PHYLLIS BENNIS
Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for
Policy Studies, Bennis said today: "The idea of a 'League of
Democracies' is an only slightly more polite way of saying 'club of all
the countries we like, designed to exclude and probably gang up on all
the countries "we" don't like.'
"The irony, of course, is that some of Washington's best friends --
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan all come to mind -- are one-man
or one-family dictatorships. The countries often targeted by the U.S.
as anti-democratic, but where more or less democratic elections are
held, like Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Venezuela, Bolivia and
elsewhere, most often elect leaders whose popularity is grounded in
saying 'no' to Washington's economic and war policies.
"The United Nations remains the most important, most representative
multilateral forum, representing ALL the countries of the world. It's
not functioning very well these days largely because the U.S. has
continued its history (which began with U.S. wiretapping of delegates
to the very founding convention of the UN in 1945) of attempting to
control the global organization even while undermining its legitimacy.
A strong United Nations, democratized and reflecting the emerging
multi-polar world we live in, would make not only Americans but the far
more vulnerable populations around the world, safer, healthier and more
secure. A U.S.-dominated 'league of democracies' will put all of us at
greater risk."
Bennis is author of Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's UN and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy U.S. Power.
More Information
Background:
Charles Krauthammer, the influential commentator, said on Fox News
Channel on March 26, 2008: "Well, I like the idea of the League of
Democracies, and only in part because I and others had proposed it
about six years ago. What I like about it, it's got a hidden agenda. It
looks as if it's all about listening and joining with allies, all the
kind of stuff you'd hear a John Kerry say, except that the idea here,
which McCain can't say, but I can, is to essentially kill the UN." See
full text and video here.
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
LATEST NEWS
In Possible Hate Crime, 3 Palestinian Students Shot in Vermont
"The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent," one advocate said.
Nov 26, 2023
Three university students of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded Saturday night in Burlington, Vermont.
The students were identified as Brown University studeht Hisham Awartani, Haverford College student Kinnan Abdel Hamid, and Trinity College student Tahseen Ahmed. In a Sunday morning statement posted on social media, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (AOC) said they had "reason to believe that the shooting was motivated by the three victims being Arab."
"We are praying for a full recovery of the victims, and will support the families in any way that is needed," AOC executive director Abed A. Ayoub said in a statement. "Given the information collected and provided, it is clear that the hate was a motivating factor in this shooting. We call on law enforcement to investigate it as such."
"The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent," Ayoub continued.
The three 20-year-olds were visiting one of the trio's family members in Burlington for Thanksgiving, police said, as the Burlington Free Press reported. They were walking along a residential street near the University of Vermont campus around 6:30 pm Eastern Time when a white man confronted them, according to Seven Days.
"The suspect was on foot in the area. Without speaking, he discharged at least four rounds from the pistol and is believed to have fled on foot," police said, as the Burlington Free Press reported.
Police said that two of the men were wearing keffiyehs at the time of the shooting, while AOC said that all three were wearing keffiyehs and speaking Arabic. Police, however, said they did not yet know the shooter's motives.
"The hate crimes against Palestinians must stop. Palestinians everywhere need protection."
"My deepest condolences go out to the victims and their families," Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement reported by the Burlington Free Press. "In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime. And I have already been in touch with federal investigatory and prosecutorial partners to prepare for that if it's proven."
The three men were taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center where two are stable and one "has sustained much more serious injuries," police told Seven Days on Sunday.
Two of the students are U.S. citizens and the third is a legal resident.
The families of the three men circulated a statement through the nonprofit Institute for Middle East Understanding.
"We call on law enforcement to conduct a thorough investigation, including treating this as a hate crime," the statement read in part. "We will not be comfortable until the shooter is brought to justice."
"We need to ensure that our children are protected, and this heinous crime is not repeated. No family should ever have to endure this pain and agony," the families continued.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said it was offering $10,000 to anyone providing information that led to the arrest or conviction of the shooter or shooters, and the FBI said it was aware of the incident and prepared to investigate if local police found evidence of a federal crime, according to TheAssociated Press.
The head of the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom, Husam Zomlot, linked the shootings to the killing of six-year-old Wadea Al Fayoume last month, a Palestinian boy who was stabbed 26 times by his family's landlord in Chicago.
"The hate crimes against Palestinians must stop," Zomlot tweeted. "Palestinians everywhere need protection."
Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also issued a statement.
"It is shocking and deeply upsetting that three young Palestinians were shot here in Burlington, Vermont," Sanders said on social media. "Hate has no place here, or anywhere. I look forward to a full investigation. My thoughts are with them and their families."
In the wake of Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel and Israel's bombardment of Gaza afterword, both Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents have increased in the U.S., The Guardian reported. CAIR said it had received 1,283 reports of discrimination and petitions for help between early October and early November, a 216% increase from the same time period last year.
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President Joe Biden has requested that Congress to lift most of the restrictions on Israel's access to a U.S. stockpile of weapons in the country, The Intercept reported Saturday.
The request came in the administration's supplemental budget request to the U.S. Senate, sent October 20. It concerns the War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) that the U.S. has stored in Israel since the 1980s for its own use in a potential conflict in the region. The U.S. allows Israel to access the stockpile under certain conditions, but Biden's request would remove most of these conditions, including a requirement that Israel only use surplus or obsolete weapons and a cap on how much the U.S. can spend resupplying the stash.
"The President's emergency supplemental funding request would essentially create a free-flowing pipeline to provide any defense articles to Israel by the simple act of placing them in the WRSA-I stockpile, or other stockpiles intended for Israel," Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned over U.S. arm transfers to Israel in the midst of its bombardment of Gaza, told The Intercept.
"The Biden administration's supplemental budget request would further undermine oversight and accountability even as U.S. support enables an Israeli campaign that has killed thousands of children."
The news comes in the midst of a four-day cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which has given journalists and humanitarian organizations a moment to assess the extent of the death and destruction unleashed by Israel in Gaza since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking around 240 hostages. In retaliation, the Israeli military has killed more than 14,800 people in Gaza, around 10,000 of them women and children. That means the number of women and children killed in Gaza in less than two months is more than double the number confirmed killed in Ukraine in two years of fighting with Russia, The New York Times concluded Saturday. One of the reasons for the high civilian toll, the Times said, is Israel's use of 2,000-pound, U.S.-made bombs in a densely populated Gaza Strip.
Despite this, Biden's request would allow Israel to access all weapons from the WRSA-I, not just excess or obsolete ones, something that could hurt U.S. preparedness, Paul told The Intercept. The request would also remove a requirement that Israel provide concessions to the U.S. in exchange for accessing the weapons, lift the $200 million per year restocking cap, and shorten a requirement that the government inform Congress 30 days ahead of a weapons transfer under "extraordinary" circumstances.
"The Biden administration's supplemental budget request would further undermine oversight and accountability even as U.S. support enables an Israeli campaign that has killed thousands of children," John Ramming Chappell, a legal fellow with the Center for Civilians in Conflict, told The Intercept.
The U.S. typically provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid every year, more than it sends to any other nation, according to Al Jazeera. The House has already approved additional aid this year to the tune of $14.3 billion.
The Intercept story came the day after Biden seemed open to the idea of putting conditions on military aid to Israel while answering questions from reporters in Nantucket.
"I think that's a worthwhile thought, but I don't think if I started off with that we would have gotten where we are today," Biden said, as HuffPost reported. "We have to take this a piece at a time."
On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden said the idea of putting conditions on aid to Israel was "absolutely outrageous." But the administration's seemingly unconditional support for Israel as it carried out its siege, bombardment, and invasion of Gaza has led to backlash among progressives, who have marched for a cease-fire and carried out direct actions in several major cities. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on November 15 found that 68% of the U.S. public backed a cease-fire.
In an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan did not rule out the idea that Biden would sign legislation putting conditions on military aid to Israel, though he said currently what was proving effective was behind-doors diplomacy with Israel and Arab nations.
"He is going to continue to focus on what is going to generate results," Sullivan said.
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"After a delay, obstacles to release of prisoners were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides," a Qatari spokesperson said.
Nov 25, 2023
Despite an initial delay, the second round of hostages were released by Hamas on Saturday night.
The group included 13 Israelis and four foreign nationals believed to be Thai, Middle East Eyereported. Israel also began to release 39 Palestinian prisoners in exchange as the second day of a four-day cease-fire concluded.
"After a delay, obstacles to release of prisoners were overcome through Qatari-Egyptian contacts with both sides," Majed Al Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry, tweeted, adding that the hostages were transferred to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Israeli military confirmed to The Associated Press that the hostages reached Israel after midnight local time. The hostages included seven children and six women, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. One of the hostages, a young girl named Emily Hand, was previously believed dead by her father.
The swap appeared to be in danger earlier in the day when Hamas said that Israel had not allowed enough aid to enter northern Gaza, which has taken the brunt of the Israeli military's force since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking around 240 hostages. Israel has since killed more than 14,800 Palestinians in Gaza in its response. The two sides have agreed to a four-day cease-fire beginning Friday that will see a total of 50 Hamas-held hostages and 150 Israeli-held Palestinians released.
In explaining the delay, Hamas also said that Israel had not released enough long-serving prisoners.
"Civilians should not be pawns in a deadly standoff between warring parties who flout basic principles of humanity."
"This is putting the deal in danger," said Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, as AP reported.
Sari Bashi, the program director of Human Rights Watch, criticized both sides for the delay.
"Hamas is obligated to release hostages, whether or not aid enters Gaza," Bashi tweeted. "The Israeli government is obligated to supply Gaza with aid, whether or not hostages are released. Civilians should not be pawns in a deadly standoff between warring parties who flout basic principles of humanity."
However, Egypt, Qatar, and Hamas later said everything had been resolved and the exchange would go forward, according to AP, sparking great relief from the hostages' friends and families.
"I was very nervous when I heard about the delay. I thought something would happen," Zohar, a classmate of 18-year-old Israeli hostage Noga Weiss, told Channel 13 TV, as AP reported. "It was a great relief when I saw her."
Egypt had also said earlier in the day that it had received "positive signals" from both sides about a possible extension of the cease-fire, Reuters reported. Netanyahu had previously said the pause would extend one day for every extra 10 hostages that Hamas releases.
Hamas said it expected Israel to release six women and 33 teenage boys on the second day of exchanges, AP reported.
One of the prisoners released Saturday was Shorouq Dwayyat, the Palestinian woman who had been held in an Israeli jail the longest, Middle East Eye reported. Dwayyat was first arrested eight years ago when she was 18. Israel claimed she stabbed a settler, which her family denies.
"We send a message to our people in Gaza that we stand by your side and support you," Duwiyat said upon returning home, as AP reported.
Another woman released by Israel was Israa Jaabis, who was arrested in 2015 with burns covering half her body, according to Middle East Eye. Jaabis' family said that she was burned when a defective cylinder of cooking gas ignited near a checkpoint, while Israel accused her of attempting a bombing. Israeli forces raided Jaabis' home ahead of her release, forcing any journalists or distant relatives to leave.
Police also raided the home of Marah Bkeer before her release Friday, Reuters reported.
"There is no real joy, even this little joy we feel as we wait," her monther, Sawsan Bkeer, told reporters. "We are still afraid to feel happy."
Dwayyat told reporters that Israel had threatened to re-arrest the released prisoners if they celebrated, according to Middle East Eye.
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