by Abyomi Azikiwe, published on Global Research, September 25, 2024
United States President Joe Biden addressed the United Nations General Assembly 79th Session on Tuesday September 24 noting this would be his last speech before the international body founded in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II.
Although Biden spoke about his supposed desire to see a ceasefire in Gaza and for the now expanding war in West Asia to end, it is his government and the ruling class which he serves that is fueling the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people and their neighbors in the region.
Since October 7, 2023, millions of people inside the U.S. have called for the halt to hostilities in Gaza where the settler-colonial Israeli regime has slaughtered over 41,000 people, most of whom are women and children, under the guise of self-defense. From mass demonstrations in the streets and encampments at college and university campuses, the people in the U.S. have made clear their opposition to the foreign policy of Washington in Palestine.
A similar situation exists in Ukraine where the U.S. government has armed and encouraged the regime in Kiev to continue their war against the Russian Federation despite its massive losses in casualties and territory. Rather than seek a negotiated conclusion to the war, the Biden administration is consistently transferring billions of dollars in weapons to the Volodymyr Zelensky clique although there is no prospect for victory against Moscow.
The negative approval ratings for Biden are undoubtedly connected to the failed Pentagon and State Department war program which has robbed the workers and oppressed of the resources needed to reverse the declining living standards. In the midst of a presidential election, there are virtually no discussions and debates over how peace can be achieved in the various contested zones throughout the world.
During the course of the Biden address before the UNGA he continued to blame the victims of imperialism for their plight. As it relates to the Palestinian question, Biden regurgitates the long-discredited claims of abuses by the Resistance while completely ignoring the more than 76-year occupation by the Zionist regime.
Biden said of the situation impacting Palestinians that:
“Innocent civilians in Gaza are also going through hell. Thousands and thousands killed, including aid workers. Too many families dislocated, crowding into tents, facing a dire humanitarian situation. They didn’t ask for this war that Hamas started. I put forward with Qatar and Egypt a ceasefire and hostage deal. It’s been endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. Now is the time for the parties to finalize its terms, bring the hostages home, en- — secure security for Israel, and Gaza free of Ha- — of Hamas’ grip, ease the suffering in Gaza, and end this war.”
Yet the Biden administration is continuing to send billions of dollars in arms to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to carry out genocide against the Palestinians. Since the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) assaults on neighboring Lebanon, the Pentagon has deployed additional troops to the region. When the Islamic Republic of Iran retaliated in response to the targeted assassinations of several of its military personnel in Syria, it was the U.S. which bolstered the occupation forces.
The administration is fond of saying that the settler-colonial regime in Tel Aviv has the right to defend itself from the resistance forces representing the nationally oppressed people. Nonetheless, such a proclamation is invalid since it assumes that Zionism backed by imperialism has a legitimate right to exist.
These statements by Biden contradicts the recent actions by the UN and its affiliates. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled on more than one occasion that the charges against Tel Aviv for genocide are not only plausible, but they have also ordered the settler-colonial state to end its presence Gaza and the West Bank. The UNGA has voted to enhance the status of the State of Palestine. Just prior to the beginning of the 79th session, the majority of member-states within the UNGA voted in favor of a resolution demanding that Israel withdraws from the “Palestinian Occupied Territories” within the next twelve months. See this.
Over the last four years, the Biden White House has not achieved any diplomatic successes in ending the occupation in Palestine, bringing peace to Ukraine and normalizing relations with the People’s Republic of China. African states which are struggling to ensure their genuine independence and right to self-determination are being targeted by the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It has been revealed that U.S. military assistance to Ukraine is being utilized to undermine the security of West African states in the Sahel region. See this.
U.S. Is Outnumbered on the Palestinian Question
Other leaders addressing the UNGA on September 24 condemned Israel and the U.S. for the situation in Palestine. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced the actions being taken against the Palestinians and Lebanese people while imploring the UN to enact measures to halt Israel in its genocidal rampage.
Al Jazeera reported on the speech of Erdogan noting that the Turkish leader drew an analogy between the actions of German leader Adolph Hitler during the WWII and what Israel is doing today:
“’Just as Hitler was stopped by the alliance of humanity 70 years ago, Netanyahu and his murder network must be stopped by the ‘alliance of humanity. An immediate and permanent ceasefire should be achieved, a hostage-prisoner exchange should be carried out, and humanitarian aid should be delivered to Gaza in an unhindered and uninterrupted way.’ Other regional leaders also spoke out against Israel’s war on Gaza at the UNGA on Tuesday. Jordan’s King Abdullah II ruled out the possibility of his country becoming an ‘alternative homeland’ for the Palestinians, warning that their forced displacement by Israel would be a ‘war crime.’ He said he was responding to proposals floated by ‘extremists who are taking our region to the brink of an all-out war’”.
The political gap between the U.S. and West Asia over the deteriorating security situations in Palestine, Lebanon and other regional states provides a clear indication of the inability of Washington to resolve these issues. Irrespective of the lack of diplomatic acumen on the part of the U.S., its military and economic dominance over various geopolitical regions has proven disastrous with the displacement and deaths of millions of people.
Although the burgeoning conflicts surrounding the settler-colonial regime occupying Palestine receives the most press coverage in the western capitalist states, in Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific the role of Washington and its imperialist allies is also causing tremendous distress and economic uncertainty. The annual UNGA debates highlight the imperatives of fundamental reforms within the global system. If there is to be world peace, the imperialists must be displaced from their position of dominance.
The Necessity for a New World System of Governance
Also speaking at the September 24 session was the Islamic Republic of Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian who emphasized the need to end the genocide in Gaza and to build regional security against imperialism. Pezeshkian was recently elected in the aftermath of the death of the previous President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.
Iran is routinely targeted by Washington and its allies as the major source of resistance to Zionism and imperialism in West Asia. Tensions have escalated over the last several months with the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh killed in Tehran by the Israeli government.
According to the Associated Press in its coverage of the Iranian president’s speech:
“Pezeshkian, like Iranian presidents before him, had sharp words Tuesday for Israel. He accused the nation of ‘atrocities,’ ‘colonialism,’ ‘crimes against humanity’ and ‘desperate barbarism’ as it fights Hamas in Gaza and exchanges fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran backs both militant groups. Israel’s heavy bombardment of Lebanon in recent days ‘cannot go unanswered,’ he said. He added that consequences would be borne by governments he described as thwarting efforts to end the ‘catastrophe’ in the Middle East while calling themselves champions of human rights, an apparent reference to the United States and allied Western powers.”
Judging from these statements the potential for broader regional and international military conflagration seems inevitable. UNGA Secretary General Antonio Guterres in his opening remarks painted a grim picture of the global situation.
The Secretary General’s address was covered as well by the Associated Press which emphasized:
“The head of the United Nations warned gathered leaders Tuesday that impunity, inequality and uncertainty are driving modern civilization toward a ‘powder keg that risks engulfing the world’ — the latest clarion call from Antonio Guterres that the global situation is becoming intolerable and unsustainable. ‘We can’t go on like this,’ the secretary-general said in an alarming state-of-the-world address as he opened the annual high-level gathering of the U.N.’s 193 member nations. He said the world is in ‘an era of epic transformation’ and facing challenges never seen before, with geopolitical divisions deepening, the planet heating and wars raging in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere with no clue how they will end. ‘We are edging towards the unimaginable — a powder keg that risks engulfing the world,’ Guterres told presidents, prime ministers and ministers in the vast General Assembly Hall.”
People within the western industrialized states concerned about the future of humanity must align themselves with the struggle to end imperialist war. An alliance between the nations of the Global South and the nationally oppressed and workers of the capitalist states provides the only viable option for the fundamental transformation of the current world situation.
Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire, an electronic press agency that was founded in 1998. He has worked for decades in solidarity with the liberation movements and progressive governments on the African continent and the Caribbean.