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Ukraine, Israel and the Worthlessness of International Agreements

Posted By Daniel Greenfield On March 4, 2014 @ 10:23 am In The Point | 6 Comments

The multilateral structures of international law, the trembling beams of the world state, are dependent on worthless pieces of paper signed by great powers.

Just as in the 1930s’, small countries that take those agreements at face value do so at their own risk. Agreements are statements of intent as conceived under current conditions and a current time. They are unenforceable except by the stronger against the weaker.

Whether it’s security guarantees or international covenants, they only apply to the extent that their signatories are willing to keep taking them seriously.

Ukraine is protected by agreements signed by Russia and by NATO countries. Those agreements are worthless because Russia decided to ignore them and the NATO countries under Obama are not about to go head to head with Russia.

When Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland, France and the UK finally did the right thing because the political conditions were now right for it. If the conditions hadn’t been right, Hitler would have gotten a pass on Poland the way that he had on Czechoslovakia and the way that Stalin got a pass on all of Eastern Europe.

All of this has wider implications beyond Ukraine. Israel is being told to put its faith in utterly worthless agreements that have already been repeatedly broken, both by the Palestinian Authority and by the United States.

The oral agreement that Sharon reached with Bush was tossed in the trash by Obama. Arafat began breaking Oslo from Day 1 and never stopped.

Obama still wants a nuclear disarmament agreement with Russia even though the bear has kept on violating its end of the deal. Obama is negotiating agreements with Russia and Iran that are equally worthless.

Treaties and agreements are pieces of paper that only work when both sides intend to honor them day to day. Without a compelling reason to go on doing so, they’re only pieces of paper.


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