“Obscenity is a moral concept in the verbal arsenal of the Establishment,” Herbert Marcuse wrote. “Obscene is not the picture of a naked woman but that of a fully clad general who exposes his medals rewarded in a war of aggression.”

On November 17, the world witnessed the greatest display of such obscenity at the very institution meant to restrain it. The UN Security Council opened a new chapter in colonial history by rewarding the aggressor and punishing the already punished-the wretched of the earth fighting for a freedom supposedly guaranteed by the UN Charter.

Many dreams were shattered that day. Stark reality stared humanity in the face; humanity, ashamed, covered its own. It was a moment of silence and lamentation as the UN surrendered its moral authority to an oppressed nation’s persecutors and empowered a narcissistic president who behaves like a Pharaoh and acts like a Nero.

The right of self-defence, the Two-State Solution, and the creation of a Palestinian state-all recognised by the UN-were tossed aside to appease an apartheid, genocidal, borderless entity. The day exposed the illusion that a parallel world order was emerging. Many believed BRICS Plus would offer alternative leadership. Instead, both China and Russia abstained from their responsibility to defend an indigenous people. Their paralysis revived memories of the “Trail of Tears,” when Andrew Jackson forced thousands of Indigenous Americans off their land. Capitalist expansion demanded Indigenous dispossession to enlarge territory-Lebensraum, a concept Hitler later borrowed-and to expand slave labour for American agriculture and industry. Russia, the diminished remnant of the Soviet Union, refused to veto a neo-colonial project that promises to enrich Trump’s circle, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, recipient of billions from the Saudis. Corruption is not confined to underdeveloped countries; many of them remain underdeveloped precisely because of Western expropriation. “The West,” Fanon reminds us, “is the creation of the East,” built on the pillage of Eastern resources-a process still underway. Russians remain Europeans whether Europe........

© Daily Times