Curtains for Middle East 'Quartet'?
It has been evident for several years now to people who watch the Palestinian situation closely that this strange bird the Middle East 'Quartet' that was tasked in 2002 with midwifing a speedy peace between Palestinians and Israelis and improving the lives of the Palestinians has failed. Miserably.
Now, a coalition of 21 western and international aid agencies that work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has issued a stinging report that confirms that conclusion.
This matters.
During the six years the Quartet has existed, Israel's implantation into the West Bank of colonial settlers and the completely segregated infrastructure that supports them has continued, and even in the past year accelerated. The Palestinians have continued to live lives tightly circumscribed by fences, repressive regulations, widespread arrest campaigns,and economic strangulation. A peace agreement is nowhere in sight.
I have always thought the Quartet was quite inappropriately constituted. It unites, under the explicit "leadership" of the US government, the government of Russia, the European Union-- and the United Nations itself. It is a complete distortion of the relationship between the US and the UN to imagine that the UN, which represents the interests of all of humanity, should in any matter be actually subordinated to the supervision of the US government, which "represents" the interests of less than five percent of humanity.
That subordination needs to be ended by the Security Council.
So the US has a veto in the Security Council, and might be expected to use it in such a vote, just as it has used it so many times in the past to block international efforts to protect Palestinian rights?
Let it try.
The world is changing. If the US wields a veto to keep the UN in subordination to itself over this vital issue in world affairs, the consequences would likely be enormous.