We're In the Way

It’s about Israel. This became apparent to me as I read the initial reports coming out of the Alliance of Civilizations. The High Level Group’s (HLG) final report strengthened this notion as I read that they consider the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be the source of tensions throughout the entire world. They further identified the problematic players to be the adherents of the three monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. But they offer a solution—an imposed solution. They have said that they’ve conducted an exercise in truth and intend to enforce their concluded truths on all of us. Those, they say, who reject their truths are extremists and fundamentalists. Let’s start by taking a look at some of the Alliance of Civilizations' truths. According to the AoC:

• “…it is our view that the Israeli-Palestinian issue has taken on a symbolic value that colors cross-cultural and political relations among adherents of all three major monotheistic faiths well beyond its limited geographic scope”. - Final Report
• “…The HLG [High Level Group] must assume the responsibility of dealing with the Palestinian case as a priority…it represents the sum total of all the difficulties and all the risks, but it is central.” - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict White Paper
• “The objective of the HLG [High Level Group] is to enforce an Alliance of Civilizations against all those who…by ignorance, fanaticism or ideological choice, give prevalence…to a logic of division and confrontation.” - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict White Paper

Before the Alliance of Civilizations can effectively deal with the Israeli-Palestinian problem, they’ve identified some obstacles that they first must remove--specifically, a sovereign United States and Christianity. As I read their words, I couldn’t help but envision a picture that is worth 1000 words. This picture was used by Iran’s President Ahmadinejad in his World without Zionism conference held in October 2005.

Notice that the United States has been ejected from the earth and lay smashed at the bottom of an hour glass. Israel, suspended in mid air, soon follows. This call for Israel’s destruction has not only been made by Ahmadinejad, but also Iran’s past president and Alliance of Civilizations High Level Group member Mohammad Khatami. This has caused tremendous concern for both the United States and Israel in light of Iran’s uranium enrichment activites. Noteworthy, Eurpoean Union’s High Representative Javier Solana has been supportive of Iran’s uranium enrichment program under Khatami’s leadership, citing that Khatami was interested in peace. Subsequently, the EU3 condemned Iran for its covert nuclear activity. Yet, Solana continues to support Iran’s nuclear development under Ahmadinejad’s leadership.

The Alliance of Civilizations International Security and Cosmopolitan Democracy report’s words strongly resemble the above picture. As mentioned earlier, AoC identified a sovereign United States and Christianity as obstacles that must be removed before it can deal with the Israeli-Palestinian problem. For example, the HLG alerts us that:

• “American neoliberalism supports the revival of religion in the US, but in fact it is not a real religious comeback but a political recourse to the religious as a means to secure imperial dominance.”
• “…the political weight American Protestantism had under the Bush administration, rather showed an America that would most likely support Israel unconditionally in its continued colonialism.”
• “…with the US left as the only superpower, politically, economically and militarily highly superior to any other, the multilateral system faces the difficulty of enforcement of International Law vis-à-vis an invincible power, which is naturally tempted to submit is sovereignty under the rule of the UN only where it matches its interests.”
• Regarding UN reform, “…one faces the dilemma of how such a reform can possibly be adopted with the consent of the only superpower if it aims to force that very superpower under the rule of law…the unique opportunity of the process of UN Reform must be taken advantage of to make multilateralism accountable to stand up even to superpowers…a reasonable reform of the Security Council would have to abolish the veto and expand the Council .”
• “…due to the current distribution of power, there are in practice different measures for the US and for the rest of the world. UN Resolutions are being applied or not depending on whose interests are affected by the envisaged actions.”
• “sovereignty is susceptible to instrumentalization. This leads to an erosion of International Law…But transnational relations need a legal frame, of which the source cannot be the states themselves…it is in fact the limitation of (national) sovereignty that guarantees democracy.”

UN Reform (to manifest itself in the form of the Alliance of Civilizations initiative) intends for the sovereignty of nations—especially the United States—to be redefined. I have become accustomed to hearing Israel’s condemnation within the assembly of the UN Human Rights Council as well as concurrent calls for the elimination of the veto. But what I find more significant is that a major power, the assembly of the Western European Union (the 10-nation military alliance of the EU), seeks the same thing. In Recommendation 735 on a European initiative to strengthen the role of the United Nations in promoting peace and security, the assembly commits to the following:

• “…provide a European contribution to United Nations reform which should contain inter alia a common position on how to reform the Security Council.”
• “…it has to be said that because the permanent members of the Security Council have a right of veto, some cases of genocide or flagrant violations of human rights will never appear on its agenda. Similarly, it sometimes happens that in the case of certain infringements of international law, a permanent member uses its veto for protectionist purposes (this happened recently in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.)”
• "Two interesting currents of thought are emerging in the UN as regards international security: one calling for a greater role for international courts in the settlement of conflicts and the other advocating a regional approach to conflict management. Regarding the first, a major step forward at the beginning of this century has been the creation of the International Criminal Court despite the fact that the United States and a number of European countries have differing views as regards immunity for their citizens and in particular for their armed forces engaged in peacekeeping operations.”

It appears the Alliance of Civilizations and the Western European Union are cooperating very closely. This is not surprising as it was the European Union who first developed the framework for a common civilization. Both have indicated that they know and intend to provide us with the truth. And as for the Alliance of Civilizations HLG’s absolute truth they have said:

• “…WE, the HLG, KNOW AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LETTING EVERYONE KNOW THE PRICE AND WEIGHT OF THESE SIXTY YEARS OF MISUNDERSTANDING, STIGMATIZATION, OF HIDDEN OR MISUSED TRUTHS…This exercise in truth (pedagogical and ideological) initiated by the United Nations will restore all their meaning and all their chances to the rebuilding and normalization of the relations between Islam and the rest of the world…” [emphasis not mine]

I expect the HLG’s truth to follow that of the Human Rights Council’s—a condemnation of Israel. In this blog post I’ve shown what the AoC intends to do about their obstacles. Next post I will write of how they propose to do it.

Selected Scripture:

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. 3And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” - Zechariah 12;2-3

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent”. – Revelation 12:7-14