UN Brings U.S. a New Low in Iran Diplomacy
Did Feltman have a choice? After all, he left his career with the U.S. government, and on July 2 joined the UN, where he now works for Ban. Though it’s tacitly understood at the UN that the U.S. administration actually decides which American will fill the slot — a double-edged arrangement in which the U.S. in theory has special influence over the UN’s Department of Political Affairs, but by the same token is implicated in its doings. A question at a UN press briefing last week (which received no answer) suggested Feltman may have tried to warn Ban against going to Tehran — but whatever went on behind the scenes, the result is now clear. Both Ban, and Feltman, made the trip.
Yes, Feltman did have a choice. On the simplest level, to take one classic UN dodge, he could have complained at the last minute of some phantom health problem or other — a sudden need for a few days of vacation, or whatever — and begged off the trip. And if, on principle, he’s unwilling to fib for the sake of the free world, he could have taken things further and, also on principle, resigned.
As it is, Ban’s pilgrimage to Tehran, with American former administration official in tow, is not going to discourage the malice and nuclear ventures of the Iranian regime; it is going to fuel the mix. The real message is that no matter how monstrous Iran’s transgressions, the high-level petitioners will line up deferentially, shoulder-to-shoulder, on Khamenei’s couch, the cherries on top of Khamenei’s “Non-Aligned” confection, while the photographers snap publicity photos to enshrine the occasion. Perhaps, when Feltman returns from his UN jaunt to Tehran, he’d be willing to reconsider the effusive thanks he expressed to Ban upon taking the UN job — video of that moment posted here, thanks to Matthew Lee of Inner-City Press. Among other things, Feltman upon joining the UN told Ban that he found it “humbling” to be in the presence of so much UN expertise. Just how humbling is becoming every more clear.
Nice job. Hopefully Feltman will at least feel a twinge of guilt.
To feel guilt, one must have a conscience. I doubt that many lefties and State Department apparatchiks have one.
The picture of Feltman w/Ban and Khamenei is a study. It puts one in mind of the expression of Dr. Paul Eppstein, “Chairman of the Theresienstadt Jewish Council” in January 1944 (http://www.ghwk.de/2006-neu/room12-2.htm).
The definition of nonaligned means aligned against Israel and the US. For historic symmetry, the next nonaligned summit should take place in Wannsee, Germany, in the same mansion that the Final Solution was planned. Khamenei, Ban, Feltman and other bozos can get good photo ops there
With the difference that Ban Ki Moon actually had the guts to ask Iran to stop menacing Israel, to condemn all the inflammatory language and say threads to wipe off another member state are unacceptable.
How many times the UN General secretary has acted like this, toward his own host? He deserves some credit for that. Not that he has any power to back his words anyway.
He deserves credit for saying words that have been said to the Iranians countless times before? Sorry, that doesn’t pass the gut-check exam.
Ban is a perfect example of why the UN is a farce, and why the US should remove its membership immediately.
hmm… said to Iran by who exactly? As far as I remember, no other UN general secretary has said that to the ayatollahs while being guests there. In any case, that’s just what I remember. I may be wrong as well.
But if you mean, said to Iran by Israel? By some Bush official during his administration? that’s no surprise. But now, under Obama administration, Ban Ki Moon said something the other guest (the american one) didn’t say. Even if Ban guts are small, it’s still bigger than the american guy guts.
I agree with UN being a farce. It should be dismantled ASAP.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, brilliantly summed up the issue that the Non-Aligned Summit has willfully chosen to ignore:
“Today, over 120 countries are in Tehran, saluting a regime that not only denies the Holocaust but pledges to annihilate the Jewish state, brutalises its own people, colludes in the murder of thousands of innocent Syrians and leads millions in chanting ‘Death to America, death to Israel’.”
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/netanyahu-slams-disgrace-tehran-summit-180643348.html
Wed 29 August 2012
I just cannot understand how someone like Feltman – who should have a much clearer insight into what is really going on in the Middle East – can attend with a clear conscience.
Just an example of the reality that Israelis must live with every day. I wonder how Feltman would feel if he came home to one of these in his mailbox along a text from his son reminding him to feed his pet turtle while he is on reserve duty.
Sesame Street teaches Israelis how to find shelter when the missiles are approaching:
Reuters) – The Israeli muppet on the cover of a new, emergency pamphlet being distributed nationwide puts a happy face on some grim warnings in a country preparing for possible war with Iran.
Israelis, the military-issued booklet says, would have only between 30 seconds and three minutes to find cover and hunker down between the time air raid sirens sound and rockets slam into their area.
The 15-page pamphlet has started to appear in mailboxes across the country, and instructs Israelis how to prepare a safe room or shelter for emergency situations.
On the cover a smiling Moishe Oofnik, the Israeli muppet version of Oscar the Grouch – the resident pessimist of the U.S. children’s show Sesame Street – sticks out of the trash can he calls home.
–
Time for talk is over. It only reinforces the Iranians in their mistaken belief that Israel will do nothing. They already know that nobody else will.
Reminds me of those Mufti of Jerusalem with Hitler photos. War and genocide, sure. But first… the photo ops!
Hopefully we can avoid the Hitler role in the next administration.
anyone know if Feltman is Jewish. Speaking as a MOT, the name sure sounds like it. Now that would certainly add insult to injury.
To fully understand the un, simply rent the film “Idiocracy”
This is a disgrace. And would someone please tell me why the UN is still in the US and the US is still in the UN and giving them OUR MONEY???
The only positive thing the UN does is help people in times of disasters. Better to have our aid say USA on the boxes than UN. after all my taxes paid for it.
Won’t make any difference when Israel bombs their nuclear abilities. But it does prove Obama is not Israel’s friend.
The principle of “non-alignment” made some sort of sense during the bi-polar world of the Cold War, when many countries stuck out their hands for bribes from both sides. But in today’s multi-polar world it simply makes no sense. If almost two-thirds of UN member nations consider themselves “non-aligned,” when the US actually maintains a military presence in also two-thirds of them, then there must be considerable overlap. The notion of non-alignment persists by bureaucratic inertia, fed by a steady stream of foreign-aid payments from the West and by a perverse desire to cock an occasional snook at the US and Israel. To pay any sort of attention to such a shake-down group brings the UN further into disrepute. But I feel a little sorry for Feltman, who’s clearly not comfortable being there.
The un has long since abandoned any sense of morality and honor and is safely beyond hope. It only survives because the American taxpayers provide a fourth of its annual budget, much of which goes to maintaining un bureaucrats in expensive and luxurious New York City apartments. Until or unless the United States withdraws from the un, this is one organization whose anti-American, anti-semitic, and anti-democracy pronouncements should be completely ignored.
You are right, of course. But isn’t there something to be said for having a forum where the world’s nutcases can sound off, giving them the impression that they are of significance? And behind the scenes, don’t we get some contacts with people from around the world who can be of help to us? Isn’t the presence of thousands of people from around the world in one place in New York City a chance of working out some deals in private, or garnering sensitive information, or myriad other opportunities, worth the public display of the inanity of the U.N.? The absence of an agency like the U.N. would pose some special problems of its own.
America needs to leave the UN and toss the UN out of America. We will never have an international body worth the name until we do.
Haji can’t shoot.
Let’s throw Obama out of office. Then let’s use American influence to get Obama the job his ‘leading from his behind’ experience makes him uniquely qualified for: Secretary General of the UN.
Then let’s throw the UN out of the country.
“Feltman did have a choice … he could have … begged off the trip.”
Erdogan and the King of Saudi Arabia did just that: Both said they were going and then didn’t show up.
“[Feltman] could have … on principle, resigned.”
No. Feltman could not do that. To do that you need principles.
Clearly this guy is diplomatic scum and, precisely, in the right position.
SEEMS Like we are fast approaching the time to nuke these terrorists and start over, or look at the second coming of Hitler, where we will be responding after the fact for those that are part of the second holocaust.
16. barry1817
Can’t. The NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) Forbids a nuclear state (one with nuclear weapons) to use those nukes on a state without nuclear weapons. Withdrawing from the NPT takes 6 months, IIRC.
It would be a good idea to withdraw. That way the USA could sell nukes to Poland and Germany. That would give Pootie the shivers.
I would rather take a shower at Penn State then vote for Obama.
What does Non-aligned mean in 2012? It used to mean not aligned with either the United States or the Soviet Union but the USSR is no more, nor is the Warsaw Pact. Many of the NAM countries are aligned – with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation but that doesn’t seem to count.