Written by Finian Cunningham; Originally appeared on strategic-culture.org
This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new 19-kilometer bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with mainland southern Russia. Thousands of kilometers away, in occupied Palestine, a massacre was being carried out by Israeli soldiers with full support of the United States as it opened a new embassy.
The two events are not as disparate as one might think at first glance. They both involve “annexation” – one fictitious, the other very real. But Western hypocrisy inverts the reality.
While US dignitaries were opening the new American embassy in Jerusalem amid pomp and ceremony, some 60 unarmed Palestinian protesters were shot dead in cold blood by Israeli snipers. Among the dead were eight children. Thousands of others were maimed by live fire. The bloodshed could increase in coming days.
The relocation of the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the Israeli-occupied city of Jerusalem, ordered by President Trump, has been rebuked by the majority of nations. The American move pre-empts any negotiated peace settlement which was supposed to bequeath East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Trump’s decision to relocate the American embassy effectively endorses Israeli claims to the whole of Jerusalem as the “undivided capital of the Jewish state”. Israel has occupied all of Jerusalem in contravention of international law since the 1967 Six Day War.
In other words, Washington has shifted from tacit acceptance to an openly complicit policy in Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory, an annexation which has been going on for seven decades since the inception of the Israeli state in 1948. The now de facto American approval of the annexation of all Jerusalem marked by the opening of the US embassy is the culmination of 70 years of Israeli expansion and occupation.
Meanwhile, Putin’s unveiling this week of the bridge linking southern Russian mainland to the Crimea Peninsula is a timely reminder of the brazen hypocrisy of American and European states.
Since Crimea voted in a referendum in March 2014 to rejoin its historic homeland of Russia, Washington and its allies have continually complained about Moscow’s alleged “annexation” of the Black Sea peninsula.
Never mind that the Crimean people were prompted to hold their accession referendum following a bloody coup in Ukraine against an elected government by CIA-backed Neo-Nazis in February 2014. The people of Crimea voted in a peacefully constituted referendum to secede from Ukraine to join Russia, which it was historically a part of until 1954 when the Soviet Union arbitrarily assigned Crimea to the jurisdiction of the Soviet Republic of Ukraine.
For the past four years, Western governments, their corporate news media and think-tanks, as well as the US-led NATO military alliance, have mounted an intense anti-Russian campaign of economic sanctions, denigration and offensive posturing all on the back of dubious claims that Russia “annexed” Crimea.
Relations between the US and the European Union towards Russia have descended into the freezer of a new and potentially catastrophic Cold War, supposedly motivated by the principle that Moscow had violated international law and changed borders by force. Russia’s alleged “annexation” of Crimea is cited as a sign of Moscow threatening Europe with expansionist aggression. Putin has been vilified as a “new Hitler” or “new Stalin” depending on your historical illiteracy.
This Western distortion about the events that occurred in Ukraine during 2014, and subsequently, can be easily disputed with hard facts as a blatant falsification to conceal what was actually illegal interference by Washington and its European allies in the sovereign affairs of the Ukraine. In short, Western interference was about regime change; with the objective of destabilizing Moscow and projecting NATO force on Russia’s borders.
That is one way of challenging the Western narrative about Ukraine and Crimea. Through weighing up factual events, such as the CIA-backed false-flag sniper shootings of dozens of protesters in Kiev in February 2014. Or the ongoing Western-backed military offensive by Kiev’s Neo-Nazi forces against the breakaway republics of Donbas in Eastern Ukraine.
Another way is to ascertain the integrity of supposed Western legal principle about the general practice of annexation of territory.
From listening to the incessant public consternation expressed by Western governments and media about Russia’s alleged annexation of Crimea, one might think that the putative expropriation of territory is a most grievous violation of international law. Oh how chivalrous, one might think, are Washington and the Europeans in their defense of territorial sovereignty, judging by their seeming righteous repudiation of “annexation”.
However, this week’s grotesque opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem accompanied by the massacre of protesting unarmed Palestinians shows that Western professed concerns about “annexation” are nothing but a diabolical sham. In seven decades of expanding illegal occupation of Palestinian territory by the Israelis, Washington and the Europeans have enacted no opposition.
But when it comes to Crimea, even though their case is not valid, the Western powers never stop hand-wringing about Russia’s “annexation” as if it was the biggest crime in modern history.
Worse than hypocrisy, the US and European Union have been silently complicit in allowing Israel to continue annexing more and more Palestinian territory despite the stark violation of international law. Periodic massacres and whole populations held under brutal military siege in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have never registered any effective opposition from Western powers.
This week, Washington has gone one step further to, in effect, exult in the Israeli annexation of Palestinian territory in the most provocative way by opening its embassy in occupied Jerusalem. Then on top of that violation of international law, we have the obscenity of the Trump White House defending the massacre of unarmed civilians as “an act of self-defense” by the illegally occupying and US-armed Israeli military. A White House license to kill.
The pathetic, muted response from the European Union and the United Nations towards this state terrorism and criminality exposes their cowardly complicity.
US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has for months been hysterically accusing Russia of violations in Ukraine and Syria. Yet, on the mass murder of Palestinians this week, Haley was silent. Her only remarks were to congratulate Israel over the new US embassy in occupied Jerusalem.
So, the next time we hear Washington and its European allies pontificate to Russia about “annexation”, the only fitting response should be one of contempt for their vile hypocrisy towards Palestinian rights and the ongoing genocide of its people under Western-backed occupation.
Sorry but I am not agree with this. Russia did not make any annexation of Crimea, as western propaganda try to tell us. Crimea was part of Russia before Stalin, and the population of Crimea after WWII was always about 90% Russian and 10% Ukranian because of Sebastopole nave base there. So, after the cup make by western countries in Ukrania, this nave basis was in danger and Crimean people request Russia to help about this. Of course, a referendum was won by Russia people living in Crimea. So, this part that once belonged to Russia, return now to Russia, that is all. There is not ectnic cleanness, there are not massacres of people, there are not bombing schools or hospitals. There are a full construction of a Russia society there. NONE ANNEXATION MY FRIEND, that is only western propaganda.
Gustavo, this process is cold annexation.
What was in the beginning and mid of 20th century is fully unimportant. Russians, the megastupid nation agreed with split of USSR. Moreover, Russia was one of garantors of Ukrainina borders. This is important.
What happened, we know all. But the process of merging of Crimea with Russia is exactly called annexation. You and lot of people mean, annexation is occupation. NO! Annexation = merging.
According to Kruschev’s son Crimea was never given to Ukraine and was always part of Russian Federation and had no political attachment as Ukraine as a country never existed but as a soviet republic of separate states. Time for you to go to school as there was no annexation as they voted themselves out of the republic after the collapse nearly 30 years ago overwhelmingly. Grow up you disinformation troll and realized you were lied to and taught lies in school and now believe Media as being honest and truthful in the West,HA!
It is totally unimportant, what says he. Important is, that in Budapset agreement Russia agreed with ukrainian borders and became a guarantor of them. Each country has its beginning. This is not argue what you wrote.
Budapest memorandum had no such assertions in it and also accepted previous referendums as accepted other than nonproliferation of nuclear weapons nothing else. Well even security assurances were violated by the western govt’s so it nulled the memorandum requiring the Minsk memorandum and what do you know of prior acceptance of these referendums as Yanukovic had no other course but to accept the will of Crimea to remove itself from the economic bloc in 1991 as it was an autonomous region. Hate to disappoint you with facts and realities of those times. So no one was a guarantor of anything as Crimea was no longer part of Ukrainian economic bloc , other parts may leave if they so wish as the west violated Geneva convention and all previous and current memorandums.
Wow Finian can write, thanks a lot for this well reasoned, logical article. Another comparison arises when we contrast the US rebuilding in Iraq with the 19km bridge to Crimea. Or I wonder how many Libyans would have kept Kaddafi instead of what they have now?
Ah lots of examples. How about building a wall to keep Mexicans out of territory that the US stole from them in the first place. These facts of history should be front and center for anyone looking to make a deal with the F.uk.us
Only problem Finian called Crimea an annexation when it was a vote to join the Russian Federation totally legal according to Kruschev’s son who said Crimea was never given to Ukraine it was an economic agreement only so no political connection once the Soviet Union fell. Kruschev is a Professor at WSU and a fellow at the Brown Institute I believe.
In 1980 Israel also annexed Golan (part of Syria, with no israeli population in 1967). No sanctions for Israel.
The Golan is part of Israel now and yes, Crimea is part of Russia. It is also a fact that huge parts of Germany are now part of Poland or even Russia (East Prussia). It is also fact that Gaza is not part of Israel. It is a foreign and hostile country to Israel. Gaza is inhabited by radical muslim Arabs…..they are enemies and have to be stopped at the border of Israel as they otherwhise would slaughter the Israelis living in villages just behind the border. It doesn’t matter if they armed or not. If they manage to destroy the border fences, whoever hides behind them (most likely tons of armed Hamas terrorists) would invade Israel. There is no way this can happen. the Syrian, Iranian or Russian governments would just carpet bomb the border area as they are used to do at home….
I only read the headline. This is why many people dismiss South Front as a propaganda outlet. They claim to be immune to the vices of the MSM but occationally go out of their way to shove an agenda through. This is why the comment section attracts neo-Nazis and hipsters. This is why I stopped stopped donating.
Your comment sound from another world: – what’s wrong with the title? nothing! On the contrary exposing propaganda and typical hypocritc double-standards! and you call the title “propaganda”? – there are absolutely no neo-nazis comments on this page at the time I am writing. So it looks to me that you are a pure troll, but not doing a great job at being a troll.
Obvious propaganda bot is obvious…
I find this article excellent at showing the lies, hypocrisy and double-standards of our Western regimes on these kind of issues.
Good article Finian, as usual. Keep up the good work, esp. drawing linking between the ZioNazi entity’s filth and Western hypocrisy.