Operation Save Israel's Arse

A Conference of High Contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention held in Switzerland earlier this month issued a declaration on 17 December. Just to give you some idea of its content, is paragraph 4 of 10:

"The participating High Contracting Parties emphasize the continued applicability and relevance of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which all High Contracting Parties have undertaken to respect and to ensure respect for in all circumstances. As such, they call on the Occupying Power to fully and effectively respect the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. They also remind the Occupying Power of its obligation to administer the Occupied Palestinian territory in a way which fully takes into account the needs of the civilian population while safeguarding its own security, and notably preserve its demographic characteristics."

Nothing to frighten the horses, you'd think.

And yet, Australia (along with the US and Canada), one of 196 High Contracting Parties to the Convention, boycotted the conference.

And not only that, before the boycott: "Israeli and Swiss diplomats said the United States, Canada and Australia were helping Israel and exerting pressure on Switzerland and other states to thwart the conference." (Israel, US attempting to prevent Geneva Convention summit on Palestinians, Barak Ravid, Haaretz, 27/11/14)

Why?

Damn silly question... to save Israel's arse, of course.

Question: How many diplomatic resources and taxpayer dollars were squandered on this unseemly endeavour this time around?

Notice I said this time around?

That's because we've done it before: See my 20/4/09 post Australia Dumps on Durban.