Arabs abstain on Israel-sponsored "Puppies are cute" UN resolution

After decades of being treated as a pariah, Israel finally managed to get a resolution approved by the UN:

The resolution encourages able nations of the world to develop farming technology for developing countries.

The resolution was passed by the UN General Assembly's Second Committee, dealing with development issues. There were 118 votes in favor and 29 abstentions, with no opposing votes. The resolution will be brought before the full General Assembly next week.

"For Israel, this is a very dramatic development, and an historic day at the UN," Ambassador Dan Gillerman told reporters. "It is the very first time that Israel initiates and authors and submits a resolution which has nothing to do with the conflict. It is not easy for Israel to have its resolutions and its points of view adopted," he added. "This makes Israel a much more normal and acceptable member of the UN. One of our main aims is to not be a one issue country and to bring awareness of Israel's excellence to the world."

Who can argue with helping poor countries farm?

A look at the countries that abstained from this vote is instructive:

Included in the 29 abstentions were South Africa and [all the] 19 Arab states present – though not including Muslim Afghanistan and Pakistan, who voted in favor. Iran did not take part in the vote. The abstentions came from Algeria, Bahrain, Brunei, Darussalam, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

So what do the Arab nations have against helping third-world farmers?

Palestinian Authority United Nations representative Riyad Mansour criticized the move, telling Reuters that Israel was "trying to score political points" and had rejected a move that would have obscured the Jewish state as the author of the resolution in favor of its presentation as a “consensus resolution.”

OK, so it is not that the Arab nations - even the ones supposedly at peace with Israel - have anything against the resolution.

They just cannot stand to agree with anything Israel says, no matter how innocuous. It is easier to abstain than to even give the appearance of being on the same side as the hated Zionists on any issue.

This is beyond politics - this is just a seething hatred for anything that Israel does; this is misoziony. The very idea of agreeing with the Jewish state on anything sticks in the throats of the Arab world. For them, emotion trumps logic, and visceral hate makes real peace impossible.

UPDATE: It's Almost Supernatural exhaustively analyzes South Africa's abstention.