The Western media focussed on the irrelevant and ‘unanimous’ UN Security Council ‘ceasefire’ vote, which only guarantees the fighting and slaughter will escalate. Another UN vote within hours of the ‘ceasfire’ vote – of immense significance and hardly touched-upon in the Western media – exposed the real world-wide divisions and alliances embroiled in this global Lebanon war. In a crucial 27-11 vote, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) condemned Israeli war crimes and agreed ‘immediately despatch a high-level Inquiry Commission to Lebanon’.
A UNHCR press release, 11 August, began:
“The second special session of the Human Rights Council today strongly condemned the grave Israeli violations of human rights and breaches of international humanitarian law in Lebanon … The [UNHCR] Council also decides to urgently establish and immediately dispatch a high-level inquiry commission comprising eminent experts of human rights law and international humanitarian law, including the possibility of inviting the relevant special procedures to be nominated to the commission to, among other things: investigate the systematic targeting and killings of civilians by Israel; examine the types of weapons used by Israel and their conformity with international law; and assess the extent and deadly impact of Israeli attacks on human life, property, critical infrastructure and environment …” (See UNHCR)
It is clear UNHCR intentions are to investigate the increasingly publicised likelihood that Israel is using US-provided illegal biological and chemical weapons against civilians. See a recent exposé by Prof. Manduca ‘New and Unknown Deadly Weapons Used by Israeli Forces’:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAN20060807&articleId=2918
There are 46 members of the UNHCR, and they rotate membership. The vote break down of its existing membership is highly revealing.
“In favour (27):Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay, and Zambia.
Against (11):Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, and Ukraine.
Abstentions (8):Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Nigeria, Philippines, Republic of Korea, and Switzerland.”
In a recent article ‘Lebanon, Syria, Iran and the Coming Imperialist Re-Division of the World’, I argued that this Lebanon war and its sheer ferocity against vivilians, was in fact master-minded in the White House and Pentagon and backed fully by the ruling class lackeys of Britain and Israel.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MAS20060802&articleId=2886
Further, I argued in much detail, that this war is an all-out war for US control of oil and gas in the Middle East, and is part of a wider imperialist war in the battle for global hegemony between three imperialist powers led by the US (North America), China (Asia and Russia), and Germany/France (Europe). Global alignments in the UNHCR vote is exactly along the lines I described in the fast-coming capitalist re-division of the world.
The vote reveals that the US has successfully, for the moment, dragged-in almost all European countries to its plans, but only getting wider global support from Canada and Japan. It is also clear that Asia, led by China first, and India and Russia too, is solidly united as a competing bloc for the first time in history on a very serious matter. But also, countries in the Middle-East, Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia (bar the obvious Japan), all blocked with China/Asia. Obviously Australia would have voted with the US-EU blocs if they had been a member at this time. That Mexico voted against the US is contrary to what its conservative government would have preferred. However, it’s government is perched on a knife-edge and with over 2 million on the streets of Mexico City recently demanding a full-election recount, the last thing they could do was to provoke things even more.
That Germany, France and Turkey have agreed to join the Lebanese military in south Lebanon with a total of 30,000 troops, does two things. It protects the back-door of the coming wider war against Iran. And, as British and US troops purposefully refuse to be involved in this buffer zone, it leaves them and Israel, all free to concentrate on the war against Iran and probably Syria too. For more details on why this is happening now and on how events may unfold, see my article mentioned above.
Newt Gingrich’s claims that this Lebanon war is the beginning of World War III, could well be correct and is, unfortunately, vindicated by this UNHCR vote. The drive to inter-imperialist war – for ever-increasing profits and control of global oil/gas between different drooling-packs of big-business/finance men and top politicians – has begun. This is no ‘ordinary’ war. Sound the alarm! It means that now – right now! – is the time for the world’s humanists, working class, peasantry, youth, the anti-capitalist, anti-war, anti-imperialist movements, intellectuals and people the world over, to rise up – to organise everywhere, mostly in your communities and workplaces – and stop this barbarous war against all humanity.
Steve Masterson – a Marxist-humanist not belonging to any group – invites you to join a new discussion list (set up in response to this US-led war) about how we go forward at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newW-Int/
