Genocide Joe encourages Israel to treat international laws and conventions with contempt

 

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  by Yvonne Ridley

   yvonneridley

Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession in the world. Sumerian records dating back nearly 5,000 years describe a temple brothel operated by Sumerian priests in the city of Uruk, in modern-day Iraq on the border with what is now Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

However, there is an even older profession documented in the region: the noble art of diplomacy. Yes, it seems that diplomats have been deploying their skills a lot longer than working girls have. The evidence is contained in the Amarna letters, written between Egyptian pharaohs and the Amurru rulers of Canaan during the 14th century BCE. Peace treaties were concluded between the Mesopotamian city-states of Lagash and Umma in southern Iraq around approximately 2100 BCE.

Why the deep dive into ancient history? It was prompted by Israel’s bombing of the Embassy of Iran in Syria on 1 April, and a tweet from former British ambassador Craig Murray who observed: “The inviolability of diplomatic missions dates back at least 3,000 years. Even the Nazis broadly respected it.” He also pointed out that: “States cannot talk to each other if they start destroying their mutual representatives. Israel’s bombing of an Iranian Ambassador’s residence in Syria and the Consulate is a fundamental breach of international law.”

He concluded his lengthy message by adding: “The complete failure of western powers to condemn it, is further example of the breakdown of western support for international law. If their Embassies and diplomats are now seen as fair game, how can they complain?”

I see absolutely nothing controversial in what he says about this odious tit-for-tat mire into which we are now being sucked thanks to the immorality of influential postholders who really should know better. I’m referring to Joe Biden, of course, the US president who, despite his advancing years, has picked up no wisdom on his journey to the White House.

This week the octogenarian promised Israel “ironclad” US support amid fears that Iran will launch revenge strikes on the Zionist State for the Israeli rockets that targeted the Iranian consulate in Syria. “We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security,” added Genocide Joe as he basically encouraged the occupation state to continue to treat international laws and conventions with contempt.

If Biden really wants to protect anyone in the Middle East, he would stop arming the genocidal regime which is clearly out of control and has zero respect for international law.

READ: Gaza: out of control Israeli troops ‘do what they want’

I can’t think of any documented evidence of a state ever attacking another state’s embassies or associated buildings. International diplomacy and embassies or their equivalents have been able to work quietly for thousands of years without fear of reprisals. Not even Adolf Hitler — who seems to be the watermark for bad behaviour these days — ever sunk so low in terms of international relations and diplomacy.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has since insisted that, “The evil regime [Israel] must be punished, and it will be punished.”

READ: Israeli army continues genocide crimes in Gaza during Eid al-Fitr: Media Office

Iran likes to play mind games and we all know any retaliation by Tehran could take months, if not years, to manifest itself, but manifest itself it will. The US and Israel, meanwhile, have the patience of a greedy toddler as meal times approach, and have obviously lathered themselves up into a frenzy. As a result, we are now hearing from discredited US intelligence agencies (the folk who brought us “Iraq has WMDs”, remember) via Biden that Iran is threatening to launch a “significant attack” on Israel or Israeli interests. It is unclear what form any reprisal would take, but it is quite clear that Iran will strike back, at a time and place of its choosing.

What is really needed right now is common sense and diplomacy, not hysteria and a war of words.

Biden needs to tone down the rhetoric. Moreover, unless Washington gets a grip on the rogue state of Israel, how long will it be before other embassies are targeted? How long before this vile nuclear power in the heart of the Middle East turns to crossing more red lines?

Israel is America’s regional rent boy. Its moral depravity, savagery and violence shows no sign of abating. Why should it when its presidential pimp in Washington DC is promising “ironclad” support? This is the moral equivalent of Biden telling a wife batterer to carry on with his violence while guaranteeing him immunity from prosecution. That is not diplomacy, it is complicit savagery.

What do you think would happen if, say, Russia bombed a US embassy in Europe? I don’t doubt for one moment that the US would retaliate, with devastating destruction guaranteed for the whole world. Israel is also a nuclear-armed state, so imagine the potentially catastrophic consequences for the Middle East — and the rest of us — now that it has thrown the diplomatic gloves off and a free-for-all may well ensue.

We are witnessing an anything but diplomatic race to the bottom as embassies and the laws and conventions that protect them are being discarded in order to defend the apartheid, settler-colonial, rogue state of Israel. The Doomsday Clock has just moved one second closer to midnight.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240412-genocide-joe-encourages-israel-to-treat-international-laws-and-conventions-with-contempt/