Most of the world unites against USA’s Jerusalem embassy move

The world unites and railed against US President Trump’s move of the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. As mentioned in the previous article (here), USA had issued threats to all the countries that are receiving foreign aids from the USA to not vote against United States. While the 128 favour vs 9 against sounds a lot like “universal condemnation”, observing the countries that abstained however showed that the threat very much worked.

Against:
Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Togo, United States

Abstained:
Antigua-Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Haiti, Hungary, Jamaica, Kiribati, Latvia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Trinidad-Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu

If you look at the list, it would be hard to miss that Mexico and Canada abstained. We also see close allies: Philippines and Australia, as well as and most of the Central & South America and most of the Pacific islands voted against or abtained. African countries with major US presence and financial aids, like South Sudan, Rwanda and Malawi also wisely abstained.

Some other countries, cleverly avoided turning up for the vote entirely, in order to not even put themselves to scrutiny.

Absentee:
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mongolia, Myanmar, Republic of Moldova, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome-Principe, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Zambia.

The absentees also reflects the same profile as those who abstained.

Thus if you put the entire vote count into “In Favour” vs “Others”, it would be clear USA continues to have influence over 1/3 of the world despite all the condemnation they have received from both Europe and the Islamic World:

In Favour: 128
Others: 65

However, when we scrutinize the member states that voted “For” the resoltion, we can kind of see this UN vote is in essence, a representation of a new multi-polar world order.

Among those that had decided to unite and vote against United States, can clearly be seen as voting generally as their regional blocs.

Other than the obvious, where all Islamic countries (including rivals like Iran and Saudi Arabia) voting along the same line, we also see European Union generally voting for the resolution (with clear exception of the eastern most member states, whom had already been having political divide from Brussels). ASEAN also voted almost unanimously (with exception of Philippines and Myanmar) for the resolution, with Singapore being the stand out, whom is a major US ally and close friend of Israel (but with a big Muslim minority in the country).

WHAT DOES THE VOTE ACTUALLY SHOWS?
The funny thing about the vote, is more about standing up against “US bullying” and “Donald Trump’s foreign policy”, than actually voting for Palestinians or even about the US embassy itself.

The vote also shows the crisis brewing for the European Union, as they failed to close ranks between the western states and the former soviet nations. Tension had already been brewing between Brussels and EU “rebels”: Poland and Hungary – and the abstain vote by Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, clearly show that they standing firm against the overbearing European Union, whom they claim is eroding the sovereignty of member states.

Pacific allies of the United States, like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, whom got blanked by Trump over the TPP, probably also find insufficient reasons to vote with United States. As mentioned earlier, Singapore’s vote is especially reflective of its priorities: speaking for the Muslim population in the country, standing in line with its 2 closest neighbour, Indonesia and Malaysia, both majority Muslim countries – is more vital, than avoiding voting against their close friend Israel, and their major ally, the USA.

The vote also shows that, despite all the condemnation of Trump by US’s neighbours: Mexico and Canada: their national interests and realities that sticking to the leadership of United States, or United States under Trump could really either give them hell over a “For” vote – remains to be the best choice for the respective countries. The abstained votes by Mexico, Canada and Australia, is indicative that USA continues to have tremendous influence in the world, and that the “pivot” of the European NATO allies away from United States remains as the only “change”, as far as United States’ world view is concerned.

So what does the vote means now?
The majority vote to declare US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “null and void” is passed – this resolution would have no power to prevent USA from moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, or does it really does anything to change the US foreign policy nor Trump’s plans for the reconciliation between Israel and Palestine.

Palestine and the Islamic World is likely to continue to protest as the inevitable reality of the US Embassy move materialize over the next 2 years, attempts by Palestine to stay away from the negotiating table is only detrimental to the welfare of their own people. Until “true power” exist to force Israel to give up on some of their demands or ambition – the status quo will only mean that any peace negotiation and settlement will be done in favor of the Israeli.