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Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

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Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've often heard defenders of Israel crap on the UN General Assembly like it's some woke antifa type organization, but it's one representative per country, chosen by the country's government. If almost every country in the world is constantly officially condemning you, perhaps they are not the problem.

It’s disingenuous to pretend that the Middle East conflict does not align people according to tribal, religious, and political groupings, as well as international alliances. Given that Jews are 0.2% of the world’s population, in contrast to a very large population of people openly biased against Israel, it’s no surprise that when you take a global popular vote that Jews will lose. The UN is not a neutral institution.

Sure I understand how Arab or Muslim countries might vote against Israel reflexively, but it's not just them, it's almost the entire world.

Go look at this list of Israel related General Assembly resolutions in 2025:

https://unwatch.org/2025-unga-resolutions-on-israel-vs-rest-...

The typical vote is like 142-6. The Israeli claim is that almost the entire world are a bunch of anti-Semites that hate them for who they are. Perhaps it's not who they are but what they are doing.

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#92

The USA, the most powerful nation the world has ever see, is powerless to do anything about it. If the US can't do anything about it, what hope is there for the underfunded UN?

I think powerless is entirely the wrong word as they are actively supplying the arms to do it

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s disingenuous to pretend that the Middle East conflict does not align people according to tribal, religious, and political groupings, as well as international alliances. Given that Jews are 0.2% of the world’s population, in contrast to a very large population of people openly biased against Israel, it’s no surprise that when you take a global popular vote that Jews will lose. The UN is not a neutral institution.

Sure I understand how Arab or Muslim countries might vote against Israel reflexively, but it's not just them, it's almost the entire world. Go look at this list of Israel related General Assembly resolutions in 2025: https://unwatch.org/2025-unga-resolutions-on-israel-vs-rest-... The typical vote is like 142-6. The Israeli claim is that almost the entire world are a bunch of anti-Semites that hate them for who they a…

From your link: “From 2015 through 2024, the UN General Assembly has adopted 173 resolutions against Israel and 80 against other countries.”

Do you seriously think that throughout this time Israel has been that much worse than all other countries?

There are many other indications that the UN is biased about Israel:

Only one country has its own permanent agenda Item 7 in the UN.

Palestinian refugees have their own organization vs refugees from all over the world, with almost 10x the budget per person.

In the UNESCO description of Jerusalem it says “The Wailing Wall delimits the quarters of the different religious communities”.

There are many other examples like this.

Not a single country in the world opened its doors to Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. So the majority of the world can absolutely be wrong.

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s disingenuous to pretend that the Middle East conflict does not align people according to tribal, religious, and political groupings, as well as international alliances. Given that Jews are 0.2% of the world’s population, in contrast to a very large population of people openly biased against Israel, it’s no surprise that when you take a global popular vote that Jews will lose. The UN is not a neutral institution.

Sure I understand how Arab or Muslim countries might vote against Israel reflexively, but it's not just them, it's almost the entire world. Go look at this list of Israel related General Assembly resolutions in 2025: https://unwatch.org/2025-unga-resolutions-on-israel-vs-rest-... The typical vote is like 142-6. The Israeli claim is that almost the entire world are a bunch of anti-Semites that hate them for who they a…

There are roughly 50 to 57 countries where Muslims make up the majority of the population. Add the countries that are heavily dependent on them, and you end up with a game that is often decided before a single ballot is cast.

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The International Court of Justice (ICJ; French: Cour internationale de justice, CIJ), or colloquially the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN)" "The Court is composed of a panel of 15 judges elected by the UN General Assembly and Security Council for nine-year terms" Literally, from the first few paragraphs of wikipedia. People don't read these days. If the UN general assembly (mo…

I've often heard defenders of Israel crap on the UN General Assembly like it's some woke antifa type organization, but it's one representative per country, chosen by the country's government. If almost every country in the world is constantly officially condemning you, perhaps they are not the problem.

Well, given that between 2015 and 2024 alone, the General Assembly adopted 154 resolutions against Israel. That's more than Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Russia, China *combined*, I find it a bit ... unfair, wouldn't you say?

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#96

Maybe to spark curious conversation, when a world power seems to be supportive of actions that an international body considers negative, what structure can help resolve these? It does seem like UN is unable to really make a dent here.

We kinda went through this with South Africa.

The only thing saving Israel is the US protection and the nukes. US protection can change. Nukes are harder.

South Africa successfully utilized "strategic ambiguity". They never explicitly acknowledged they had the weapons, while making sure world leaders knew they were a credible threat.

during South Africa's border wars (specifically against the Cubans in Angola), there were internal discussions about deploying tactical nuclear weapons. Because world leaders viewed that threat as entirely credible, it gave South Africa massive leverage.

Feels like world leaders view modern Israeli threats through the exact same lens and i'd agree given recent covert operations like the beeper bombings hence this UN posture.

Could we replicate the SA situation? probably not but maybe partially?

When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended, South Africa’s strategic leverage evaporated overnight. The US and UK no longer had a reason to shield them from crippling global economic sanctions.

Feels like we are watching this in real time with Israel post Iran war. If the US entirely removed its diplomatic shield and allowed full global economic isolation to set in, the economic cost of maintaining a pariah state might eventually outweigh the perceived security benefit of the weapons. ('might' doing a lot of heavy lifting there)

Also SA was also motivated by fear of the nukes getting in the hands of the incoming leftist government, Israel does not have that fear.

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#97

This is really sickening - if North Korea or any other less connected country did this, you would quickly see their national (tech) companies being sanctioned by the west. I never understood how a country like Israel, given the history of its own tribe, can themselves become so gruesome and have a hugely state-supported private spy-tech sector that supports the worst autocrates in the world as long as the money flows…

First thing coming into mind is the number of companies and individuals blocking Russians in the beginning of the war before any sanctions out of virtue signalling.

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#98

Maybe to spark curious conversation, when a world power seems to be supportive of actions that an international body considers negative, what structure can help resolve these? It does seem like UN is unable to really make a dent here.

> when a world power seems to be supportive of actions that an international body considers negative, what structure can help resolve these?

Apply the Apartheid South Africa treatament. Gather the larger number possible of complying members, and apply a coordinated boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign to put pressure in the party engaged in genocide, ethnic cleansing or other abhorrent actions.

Re: Israel targeted Gaza children resulting in genocide, UN inquiry says

#100

Maybe to spark curious conversation, when a world power seems to be supportive of actions that an international body considers negative, what structure can help resolve these? It does seem like UN is unable to really make a dent here.

I think this is a good argument why a singular world power is actually a bad thing - because no matter how much it will promote itself as the "good guys" (and of course it will), at the end of the day, it will push through its own interests by that dominance - whereas if power is more evenly distributed, countries might be more willing to agree to common, formalized rules and a "neutral" body to evaluate them.

I think the emergence of nation states with democratic institutions and a strong system of law is actually a hopeful precedent here. Somehow we got from a world of fiefdoms and lords that literally stood above the law to states with checks and balances. (Yes, we're sliding back towards the "fiefdoms" situation right now, but we're still far better than things used to be)

So I'm gonna be a starry-eyed idealist and keep the hope up that we might archive the same on a global level at some point.

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