Ron Paul on the Question of UN Recognition of Palestinian Statehood

by Joe Wolverton, II
The New American

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced recently that the Palestinian Authority intended to seek official recognition of statehood by the United Nations. The UN Security Council president announced Monday that the council would meet today to begin formal consideration of the Palestinian request for membership in the world body.

Predictably, the United States has announced that it would veto any Security Council resolution accepting Palestine’s application for recognition. The exercise of the veto would prevent the proposal from being placed before the 193-member General Assembly for the needed two-thirds vote. A yes-no vote in the Security Council is not expected to occur for some time, perhaps a month.

If the United States and Israel are successful in thwarting the Palestinian plan to gain full membership in the United Nations, the Palestinian Authority will likely recur to the General Assembly, where the possibility of a veto is obviated and there remain a few less desirable, though more likely, alternatives to official recognition of statehood. These options include a change in status from a permanent observer to a nonmember observer state. This change would afford the Palestinians the chance to be a part of the various agencies of the UN, as well as to be party to treaties including the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court.

According to reports, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and their allies around the globe will attempt to stall such decisions while they work to resume diplomatic negotiations between Israel and Palestine that have been stalled for quite some time.

Presidential hopeful, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas, above) wrote recently about his view on the question of Palestinian statehood. Regarding the varied and vigorous attempts by the United States to deny statehood to the Palestinians, Paul wrote:

Only a political class harboring the illusion it can run the world obsesses over the aspirations of a tiny population on a tiny piece of land thousands of miles away. Remember, the UN initiated this persistent conflict with its 1947 Partition Plan.

As the nations of the world align themselves with either the U.S./Israeli position or the Palestinians, Congressman Paul laments the dearth of a strictly American/constitutional consideration of the matter:

We rarely seem to hear the view of those who support the US side and US interests. I am on that side. I believe that we can no longer police the world. We can no longer bribe the Israelis and Palestinians to continue an endless “peace process” that goes nowhere. It is not in our interest to hector the Palestinians or the Israelis, or to “export” democracy to the region but reject it when people vote the “wrong” way.

Dr. Paul rightly sees the United Nations itself as the primary cause of the contention in the Middle East. Additionally, he condemns neoconservatives in the U.S. government for loyally supporting the UN agenda and for so often subjugating the sovereignty of the United States of America to the will of an unaccountable and unconstitutional international body.

The UN is a threat to our sovereignty – and as we are the main source of its income, it is a threat to our economic well-being. Increasingly over the past several years, we see the United Nations providing political and legal cover for the military aspirations of interventionists rather than serving as an international forum to preserve peace. Neoconservatives in the US have grown to love the United Nations as they co-opt the organization under the guise of endless “reform.” Under the sovereignty-destroying doctrine of “Responsibility to Protect,” adopted at the 2005 World Summit, the UN takes it upon itself to intervene in internal conflicts of its member states whenever it believes that human rights are being violated. Thus under “Responsibility to Protect,” the UN provides the green light for a kind of global no-knock raid on any sovereign country.

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September 30, 2011

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