TNR Brief: Alliance for Prosperity Scorned, US Vote on Israeli Settlements

La Paz, Bolivia (photo: The Nation Report)

Vice President Biden and Honduran President High Five Each Other

US Vice-President Joe Biden and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez conferred by telephone today about the Alliance for Prosperity deal that applies to what has been dubbed the Northern Triangle of Central America, including El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Biden offered praise to Hernandez for improving the human rights situation, and for combating corruption.

Hernandez in turn thanked Biden for continued involvement and for his willingness to “advance prosperity, security, and governance” in Honduras. An agreement followed to continue the push for US Congressional for support of Central America.

This move outraged US human rights groups that have personally witnessed years of social and political repression and the human rights abuses characterizing each. Chuck Kaufman Co-Coordinator with the Alliance for Global Justice responded to the news of the phone call between the two leaders by commenting directly to Vice-President Biden, “Vice President Biden, your administration fought to normalize the 2009 coup which has cost hundreds of Hondurans their lives, including indigenous environmentalist Berta Caceres. Your own Alliance for Prosperity plan is based on further militarizing corrupt military and police in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala rather than removing the reasons that Central Americans are fleeing to the United States. It is hard to imagine how a Trump administration could be any worse for Central America than the Obama/Biden administration has been. Thank you Joe Biden for making the transition in the US government a little easier to accept. When it comes to Honduras Joe, thanks for nothing.”

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US Congress Set to Vote on Israeli Settlements

The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights is encouraging supporters to call US congressional representatives to urge a vote against House Resolution 11.

On December 23, the United States abstained from a vote on UN Security Council Resolution 2334 affirming that Israeli settlement activity “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law. The establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace.” This abstention allowed the resolution to pass, 14-0.

HR 11 was introduced and co-authored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Democrat Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY).

The US Campaign for Palestinian rights says that HR 11 contains many inaccurate statements about the content of UN Security Council Resolution 2334: “The UN resolution does not enforce binding parameters for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issue on the parties and does not seek to supplant direct negotiations between them. Nor is the UN resolution one-sided: it also calls for immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction, and calls on both parties to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric. The UN resolution does not break new ground by reaffirming that East Jerusalem is included in the West Bank for purposes of defining Occupied Palestinian Territory. Nor does the resolution include any language supporting the Palestinian civil society-led call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions.”

After the UN vote, Secretary of State John Kerry explained: “If we had vetoed this resolution just the other day, the United States would have been giving license to further unfettered settlement construction that we fundamentally oppose.”

The US Senate is expected to vote on the resolution soon after the congressional vote.

Update: Three hundred forty-two Representatives voted in favor, 80 Representatives voted against the resolution. Colorado Representative Diana DeGette (D) was the lone Colorado representative to vote against. Others to vote against were Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Rep. David Price (D-NC).

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