[WCUSP] US/Bolton vetoes UN resolution condemning Israel for Gaza massacre

[yvonne simmons]

Hi, Don't you think we should have a rapid response to
this veto to our members. In peace Yvonne.
(
> U.S. vetoes U.N.  resolution condemning Israel 
> By Irwin  Arieff 44 minutes  ago  
> UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The  United States on
> Saturday vetoed a _U.N. 
> Security  Council_ 
>
(http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=U.N.+Security+Council)
>  resolution urging an immediate  withdrawal of
> Israeli forces from Gaza 
> and condemning an  Israeli attack there that killed
> 18 Palestinian civilians.  
> Nine of the council's 15 members  voted for the
> measure, while four 
> abstained: Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia. 
> But the "no" vote cast by U.S.  Ambassador John
> Bolton -- his second since he 
> arrived at U.N. headquarters in  August 2005 -- was
> enough to kill the 
> resolution. 
> Bolton's first veto, on July 13, 2006, killed a 
> resolution reacting to an 
> earlier Israeli incursion in Gaza. 
> The United  States has cast 82 vetoes in  the       
> United Nations' 61 
> years, and nine  of the last 10 council vetoes,
> seven of which dealt with  the      
>   Israel-Palestinian  conflict. 
> The measure defeated on Saturday was  backed by
> Arab, Islamic and nonaligned 
> nations and formally proposed by Qatar. 
> It would have called on  the        Palestinian
> Authority to "take  immediate 
> and sustained action to bring an end to violence,
> including the firing  of 
> rockets on Israeli territory." 
> It would have urged the  international community to
> take steps to stabilize 
> the situation, revive the Middle East peace  process
> and consider "the possible 
> establishment of an international mechanism"  for
> the protection of 
> civilians. 
> It also would have condemned Israeli  military
> operations in Gaza and called 
> on the  Jewish state to withdraw all troops from
> Gaza and end its  operations 
> in all Palestinian lands. 
> ACCIDENTAL 'TECHNICAL  FAILURE' 
> Seven children and four women were  among the dead
> in Wednesday's shelling of 
> Beit Hanoun, for which Prime Minister  Ehud Olmert
> has apologized, calling it 
> an accidental "technical failure" by the  Israeli
> military. 
> But Palestinian leaders have called  it a massacre. 
> Bolton said Washington regretted  the loss of life
> but was "disturbed at 
> language in the resolution that is in  many places
> biased against Israel and 
> politically  motivated." 
> He said the suggestion of a  mechanism to protect
> civilians would raise false 
> hopes, and he was disturbed the  measure made no
> mention of the word 
> "terrorism" or the Palestinians' elected  Hamas
> government, which refuses to 
> acknowledge Israel's right to exist or  renounce
> violence. 
> Palestinian U.N. Observer Riyad  Mansour said Arab
> foreign ministers meeting 
> in Cairo on Sunday would decide  on the next steps
> following the measure's 
> defeat. One option was to bring the  measure to a
> vote in the 192-nation General 
> Assembly, where Washington did not  have veto power.
> 
> The U.S. veto sent  the wrong message to both
> Israeli and Palestinian 
> militants, Mansour told  reporters. "Will that help
> extremist elements to take issues 
> into their own  hands on both sides? You bet!" 
> Governments that abstained said they  were unable to
> support the text because 
> it was unbalanced. 
> "It is absolutely right that the  Security Council
> should meet on this 
> important issue," said British Deputy  Ambassador
> Karen Pierce. But "any statement 
> from this council must be balanced  and must serve
> the interests of both 
> parties, and that interest is peace."  
> Congo Republic Ambassador Basile  Ikouebe, who voted
> for the measure, 
> expressed "deep disappointment" that the  veto had
> prevented council members from 
> being "able to express ourselves clearly  on such a
> serious  situation."
> 
> 
> 
> 
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