Two Resignations

Two notable, high-level resignations have occured in the last 48 hours which need to be discussed.

First: Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned in direct protest to the Israeli's cabinet's approval of the full pull out of Jewish settlements from the Gaza strip.

At a news conference after the Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu, a member of Sharon's ruling Likud party, said he could not be a part of the prime minister's plan.

"We can see in Gaza ... an Islamic terror base being established," he said.

"Hamas is getting stronger all the time. It is getting stronger and it is taking credit for what looks like Israel fleeing under terror."

The pullout will make Israel less, not more, secure, he said, adding that the idea of disengagement has been tried and failed before, "and it will fail again."

The Likud party led by Sharon, he said, was "not the Likud the people voted for."

Netanyahu is considered Sharon's biggest political rival within the party, according to The Associated Press. He is expected to challenge Sharon for party leadership ahead of the next election.

Netanyahu's resignation is pure moral ideology. It is a strong statement against the Appeasement of the Israeli pullout in the Gaza strip and certainly demands and deserves attention. When we talk about appeasement, though, it requires an understanding of who the invading and oppressive forces are. It is a difficult argument to say that the Palestinians are the invading and occupying forces in the Gaza settlements- it is the Jewish settlements that have grown in size and capacity, and that have saught to reclaim the land in their name.

Netanyahu, though, does insist that a pullout without any viable, tangible assurances from the Palestinians that they, too, will approach the peace process honestly is a valuable comment; One that the international community must be involved with at all. It is up to all of us to insist upon the Palestinians that they participate in peace. Netanyahu's position is that any pull out is appeasement to the enemy, which he's right to say does not work. The question is larger, though, and the global government must work to make both sides understand that it's not appeasement that we need - but a reasonable, two state Peace.


Secondly, and equally importantly: Benon Sevan resigned from the UN. Sevan was the undersecretary in charge of the scandal-ridden Oil-for-Food program.

Lewis told CNN on Sunday night that Sevan is in Cyprus, his home country, and he didn't know when he might return. Asked about the timing of the resignation, the attorney said, "Sevan lost confidence that the (secretary-general) or the (committee) would treat him fairly."

In the career diplomat's three-page letter to Annan, released by Lewis' office, Sevan called his management of the program "transparent."

He said he was proud of what he and his staff accomplished and dismayed at the lack of support from the United Nations. Sevan, 67, noted that he has worked with Annan for nearly 40 years on various projects.

"I am disappointed by the tepid manner in which the United Nations has spoken out in defending the program against the scandalous accusations," Sevan said.

"As I predicted, a high-profile legislative body invested with absolute power would feel compelled to target someone, and that someone has turned out to be me," he said. "The charges are false, and you, who have known me all these years, should know that they are false.

"I fully understand the pressure that you are under, and that there are those who are trying to destroy your reputation as well as my own, but sacrificing me for political expediency will never appease our critics or help you or the organization."

Sevan feels hung out to dry in the scandal- he is the fall guy. He also claims transparency in the investigation, which seems a dubious claim at best. There is much yet that we don't fully know.

But Sevan also offers an illumination into the crippled form of the UN due to intense, outside political pressure. If he is scapegoated, he is scapegoated because Annan is obligated to put somebody out. If Fox News keeps up the headhunt, there's bound to be a fallguy. And the guy who ran the program will be it. However, by his resignation he both fingers Annan for cowing to international pressures, but also points the finger directly at those pressures. There's no doubt that Oil-for-Food was a travesty of a program due to corporate dirtyfingers and highly-corrupt money laundering within Iraq. But the international pressure also is somewhat undue, as Galloway attempted to point out in his Senate hearings. The blood is on all of our hands. The participants were, among others, US Oil and energy interests.

So this isn't a resignation of principle, but rather one of illumination. What are we to do, how are we to judge the corrupt body of which we have been such a key part?

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UPDATE: General Stan 11:07 pm 8.8.05

It's becoming more and more clear that Sevan was involved in the scandal, to the extent that he took extensive kick backs and cash for access. Of course, it must be determined through proper channels of law. Annan has not yet revoked Sevan's diplomatic rights of protection, as he has with project manager Alexander Yakovlev, keeping Sevan protected from prosecution at the current time.