U.S. Vetos U.N. Condemnation Of Israel

Since the Bush administration took office, the United States has ceased to act as a neutral party in the mideast. Our government labels any Palestinian or Arab actions as bad [or even terroristic], while all Israeli actions are good and justified, no matter what the consequences are of those actions.

Last week, the Israeli's started a new offensive in Gaza that resulted in the bombing deaths of 18 sleeping civilians, many of them women and children. The Israeli Prime Minister called it a "technical error", and said Israel was trying to bomb a nearby area where Palestinians fire rockets at Israel. Of course to the U.S., the Palestinians were acting as terrorists while Israel simply made a mistake [even though this adds to a long line of Israeli "mistakes"].

This week, the United Nations Security Council tried to pass a resolution condemning Israel's aggressive actions and asking them to pull out of Gaza. The resolution also condemned the rocket attacks and asked the Palestinian government to put a stop to them.

Ten nations voted for the resolution. Britain, Denmark, Slovakia and Japan abstained. There was only one nation voting against the resolution -- the United States. The U.S. also exercised its veto to kill the resolution, saying it was unfair to Israel.

When Jimmy Carter was president, progress was made in the mideast region because both sides viewed us as impartial. Even Reagan, Bush I and Clinton tried to remain as neutral as possible. But since the current administration has taken office, they have made no secret of the fact that they are no longer neutral -- they support Israel no matter what it does.

The situation will not get any better between the Israelis and the Arabs, until the United States once again lives up to its responsibility to be fair to all sides. But I don't expect that to happen while Bush is in office.