No justice, no peace: but will Netanyahu ever have to answer for his actions?
A warning from Shakespeare’s King Henry V for Netanyahu. Williams, a soldier on the battlefield, is talking about who will be held responsible, on the day of judgment, if the King is leading them to fight an unjust war (although Williams doesn’t realise he’s talking to the king himself):
But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all ‘We died at such a place;’ some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of subjection. (William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 4:1.)
Netanyahu may not be worried by this ghoulish Christian view of the final judgment. For one thing, he may have a different tradition in mind:
Thus says the Lord of Hosts, “I will punish what Amalek did to Israel in opposing [the Israelites] on the way, when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling ox and sheep, camel and ass. (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, 1 Samuel 15:2-3.)
But I somehow doubt he’s thinking of that either. He just wants to kill Palestinians. And there’s nobody to hold him to account for that.
Certainly not the UN.
While the world burns
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/15/fossil-fuels-how-a-huge-gamble-sealed-cop28-deal
The story told in this article about a “chance” meeting between US climate envoy John Kerry, a prince and a sultan is pure theatre. The wording of the final document is a con-trick that any old confidence trickster would be proud of. The “world’s governments” would now “call on countries” to
begin “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050 in keeping with the science”.
This was a “signal”, said the Head of the UN’s development programme, that “the world is moving beyond the fossil-fuel era.”
It wasn’t. It is a promise that will easily be broken by those who made it, while all the time pretending to have kept it. “We never promised a magic bullet,” they will say, “just that we would be transitioning.” Oh, and “accelerating” something or other. They will no doubt be thankful that there aren’t any targets for them to meet, no timetable. Nothing.
The wheelers and dealers of COP28 are, in a phrase used here in the city of Hull, “having a laugh”. Whatever their rhetoric, this is where the Saudis and the most powerful states always intended COP28 to end. The rest is theatre, pantomime.
Anne Rasmussen, of Samoa, speaking for the small island states, said that the agreement did not go far enough:
We have made an incremental advancement over business as usual when what we really needed is an exponential step-change in our actions and support.
Yes, you do need that, Anne. But you’re being too generous. There was no “incremental advancement over business as usual”, as we will see next year when all the bigwigs come together again, saying “We failed to make progress; we are on the edge; this is our last chance.” And John Kerry will smile his smile and go for another impromptu meeting.
I hope I’m not being cynical. It’s just that I saw this headline this morning:
Cop28 president says his firm will keep investing in oil
Exclusive: Sultan Al Jaber says Adnoc has to meet demand for fossil fuels, and hails ‘unprecedented’ Cop deal
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