UN Approaches the Dustbin of History

By NASEER ARURI

"Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice continues to excuse her opposition to a halt of civilian killings by repeating a pathetic phrase: We seek a "sustainable cease-fire," as if a cease fire is the end of a negotiating process rather than the beginning and the necessary condition. Even more disingenuously, President Bush does the same thing by repeating an inane goal of getting to the "root cause," forgetting that his understanding of relevant history goes back to less than five years.

Should the Security Council acquiesce in this complicity, it will have forfeited its raison d'etre, i.e., responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and will have also rendered the office of the Secretary-General a virtual agency among the layers of the US foreign policy bureaucracy. Kofi Anan, who waited until July 21st to call for an immediate ceasefire, has no option now but to make good on his request, despite the opposition of the US pro-Israel lobby and its neo-conservative operatives, whose man at the UN is acting as a second ambassador from Israel, a fact which has dealt a severe blow to the humanitarian image of the UN system. Expressing his contempt for the United Nations, John Bolton had this to say about the United Nations in the year 2000 ""If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member [the United States] because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world."

The UN Charter is being effectively put to the test. It will either be a catalyst of peace in the Middle East, or a witness to the "birth pangs of a new Middle East," as the US Secretary of State has crudely put it. It will either be upheld and implemented, or it will be consigned to the dustbin of history."