Israel's Pacific Island Sock-Puppet Sues... Israel

In his Diary of a Foreign Minister, Bob Carr wrote of his victory over the Israel first government of former prime minister Julia Gillard to register an Australia first vote in support of enhanced Palestinian status in the UN:

"The column of ten nations, die-hards, glued on Israel supporters - Micronesia and the Marshall Islands - had just been reduced by one. A message to the settlers and fanatics in Israel..." (See my 20/4/14 post The Carr Diary 12)

The other 9 die-hards for Netanyahu's Israel at the time (29/11/12) were, of course, Israel itself, the United States, Canada, Palau, Nauru, the Czech Republic and Panama.

While there's an implied swipe here by the Americanophile Carr at the US, it was obviously the absurdity (not to mention the ignominy) of Australia lining up yet again with Israel's Pacific Island sock-puppets that got to our former foreign minister.

That absurdity is underlined by the following news:

"The Marshall Islands is suing the nine countries with nuclear weapons at the International Court of Justice at the Hague, arguing they have violated their legal obligation to disarm... It argues it is justified in taking the action because of the harm it suffered as a result of the nuclear arms race. The Pacific chain of islands, including Bikini Atoll and Enewetak, was the site of 67 nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958... The Marshallese Islanders say they have been suffering serious health and environmental effects ever since. The Island republic is suing the five 'established' nuclear weapons states recognised in the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) - the US, Russia (which inherited the Soviet arsenal), China, France and the UK - as well as the three countries outside the NPT who have declared nuclear arsenals - India, Pakistan and North Korea, and the one undeclared nuclear weapons state, Israel." (Marshall Islands sues nine nuclear powers over failure to disarm, Julian Borger, theguardian.com, 24/4/14)

It'll be interesting to see how the Marshall Islands votes in the UN on Palestine/Israel-related issues from now on.