Palestine UNESCO Vote Determines Real Sovereignty of Nations

Based on today's historic vote at the UNESCO for Palestine's membership, which gave Palestine this overdue right, I may quickly conclude a few things:

1- If it had not been for the United Nations' Security Council DICTATORSHIP, Palestine would have been a State and a member of UN by now.. and would have probably been able to do it long time ago !

2- The US's threat of cutting its petty US$60 million funding to UNESCO did not work. I guess with that amount of money both Isreal and USA used to buy a whole block of countries for voting purposes at UN organisations. But that money right now does not seem like a big deal. The US has confirmed it was cutting its funding to UNESCO, hence not going to pay the US$60 million due in November (22% of UNESCO's budget). Well any Arab Gulf country can actually fill in. I am not sure whether any Arab Sheikhs would do it, but if they did the money would probably come anyway from the US for the oil it is buying from the Arabs :)

3- The US and Isreal's lobbying machine is weaker than ever. Very poor performance! The world is clearly NOT UNI-POLAR any more, the USA is not the world's Supreme and Absolute Superpower any more. 

4- We now have an updated list of independent sovereign countries of the world (voted YES), a list of US puppet countries (voted NO), and a list of cowardly US semi-puppets or potential puppets (abstained) !

5- Basically all of Latin America is sovereign and supports Palestinian Statehood, except for Panama (voted NO), Mexico, Colombia + a few Caribbean islands (abstained). Antigua & Barbados, Dominica & Guyana (abstentees) either did not show up or did not have voting rights.

6- Not a single African country has voted no. There were some abstentions and some absentees from Africa but most African countries voted YES.

7- All Arab League member countries voted yes except for 2 absentees (Comoros and Eritrea)

8- From AustralAsia only 4 Pacific Islands + Australia voted NO. Most Asian countries voted YES. A few abstained (such as Japan) 

9- European countries seem to be divided on this one. France gave us the big surprise of voting YES (surely not for the love of Palestine. I guess Sarkozy wanted to show the US he is no puppet + he wants glory for France + he could get some Arab voters in France). Other EU countries abstained (Britain) while Germany, Holland, Sweden, Czech Republic and Lithuania voted NO.

10- This is just a first step towards more UN agencies' membership, now that we know the world stands by Palestinians' right to have a country.

I am very happy myself :-)

You may read about Palestine's UNESCO's membership consequences in this article Fact sheet on the PLO's bid for UNESCO membership

Anyway here is the voting list I got from The Human Province blog for you to check out and study. I double-checked at UNESCO's website + news agencies

107 Voted Yes (Sovereign Countries): 

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chad, Chile, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Luxembourg, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Russian Federation, Sant Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

14 Voted NO (US & its puppets):

Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, United States of America, Vanuatu.

52 Abstained (Are they Coward or Courageous?):

Albania, Andorra, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cook Islands, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Georgia, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kiribati, Latvia, Liberia, Mexico, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Switzerland, Thailand, Macedonia, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Zambia.

21 Absentees (Either did not show up or have no voting rights - if they didn't pay up their dues):

Antigua and Barbuda, Central African Republic, Comoros, Dominica, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Madagascar, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Confederated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Niue, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan.

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Caricature by: Carlos Latuff