UN General Assembly Rebukes US Despite Mafia-Style Threat

FEATURING PHYLLIS BENNIS – The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday morning voted 128 to 9 against Donald Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The vote was a strong rebuke not only of the US decision, but also of threats issued by Trump and his UN Representative Nikki Haley. The General Assembly vote follows an earlier vote by the Security Council on Monday on a similar resolution which the US lost 14 to 1.

Trump responded to the Monday Security Council vote saying, “For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars and then they vote against us. We’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”

Ahead of the General Assembly vote Representative Haley sent a letter to UN members saying, “The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue.” She followed her letter with a tweet, “when we make a decision, at the will of the American people, about where to locate OUR embassy, we don’t expect those we’ve helped to target us. On Thurs there’ll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.”

Phyllis Bennis, Director, New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, author of numerous books including Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror and Ending the US War in Afghanistan. She is a long-time UN expert.