The Biden administration failed to veto a UN Security Council resolution on Israel’s war in Gaza against Hamas, essentially turning its back on Israel at a time when the Jewish state is fighting for its existence and Jewish hostages are trapped underground in Hamas’s terror tunnels.
The Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan criticized the Security Council for passing a measure that called for a ceasefire “without conditioning it on the release of the hostages.”
“It undermines the efforts to secure their release,” he said.
Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Ron Dermer, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, had been scheduled to travel to Washington on Monday to discuss the offensive and US alternatives, but the visit was canceled after the vote.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on X that Israel would not abide by the resolution.
“The state of Israel will not cease fire,” Katz said. “We will destroy Hamas and continue to fight until the last of the hostages returns home.”
This was the Council’s first explicit call for an immediate ceasefire since Israel began a military offensive in the Gaza Strip following last October’s brutal attack by Hamas and other Palestinian groups against communities in southern Israel, in which over innocent 1,200 civilians were killed and more than 250 taken hostage.
Israel’s military operation has since reportedly claimed over 32,000 Palestinian lives, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. This number includes approximately 12,000 terrorists.
The US previously vetoed 3 resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Its officials argued that the cease-fire and hostage releases should be tied.
Like other council members it contributed to the draft but expressed reservations: “We appreciated the willingness of members of this council to take some of our edits and improve on this resolution,” US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.
“Still, certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas, and we did not agree with everything in the resolution. For that reason, we were unfortunately not able to vote yes.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield urged the council and U.N. members across the world to “speak out and demand unequivocally that Hamas accepts the deal on the table.”
“A ceasefire could have come about months ago if Hamas had been willing to release hostages,” the ambassador said, calling on member states and the Security Council to demand that Hamas “accepts the deal on the table.”
“Any ceasefire must come with the release of all hostages,” she added.
Because Ramadan is set to end by April 10, the cease-fire demand would last for just two weeks, though the draft says the pause in fighting should lead to “a lasting sustainable cease-fire.”
Shortly before Monday’s vote, the elected members changed the final draft resolution to drop the word “permanent” from its demand that a Ramadan cease-fire should lead to a “sustainable” halt in fighting apparently at the request of the United States.
The 15-member Security Council failed in its four previous attempts to adopt a resolution on the Gaza crisis, most recently last Friday, when permanent members China and Russia vetoed a proposal led by the U.S.
The Council’s vote comes as Secretary-General António Guterres, on his annual solidarity trip, is visiting the region, where on Saturday, he spoke to reporters from the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, calling the conditions in the enclave “a moral outrage” and urging an immediate humanitarian ceasefire so Gaza could be “flooded” with desperately needed aid.
Guterres, viewed by many Israelis as siding with Hamas, failed to admit that much of the aid that is being sent into Gaza is being exploited and stolen by Hamas. Some of the aid, which is supposed to be free, is being sold in the market for inflated prices.
Reacting immediately after Monday’s vote, Guterres said on X that the long-awaited resolution must be implemented.
The Council’s failure to do so “would be unforgivable”, he stated.
To top it all off, in a wide-ranging new interview with ABC News, Vice President Kamala Harris suggested there could be “consequences” for Israel if it moves ahead with a planned invasion of Rafah in its pursuit of Hamas terrorists.
“We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” Harris told ABC News in part of the interview that aired Sunday on “This Week.”
“Let me tell you something: I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go,” Harris said.
So, Harris, now an expert on maps, knows what Israel can and should do – more than Israel’s experienced military generals and commanders.
Not surprisingly, when Harris speaks, Israelis roll their eyes and nod politely.
Unlike President Biden and the Democrats, the Republicans have been more understanding of Israel’s position.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump said recently in an interview, “Only a crazy [person] or an idiot wouldn’t respond like Israel did to October 7.”
Last week, Trump railed against American Jews who vote Democrat, and slammed the growing criticism of Israel within the party.
Israel has increasingly been under attack by Democrats. Remarkably, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer himself recently spoke out against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for new elections to replace him as well as calling him one of the obstacles to peace.
His outrageous remarks caused an international firestorm. Schumer tried to backtrack and clarify what he said, but it is now clear to most right leaning and Israeli Jews that Schumer has been corrupted by the progressive branch of the Democratic party.
This backstabbing of Israel during a war is outrageous and should be condemned by everyone who has the power and position to do so. A concerted effort by those who actually care about Israel and understand its need to first bring back the hostages before discussing a ceasefire could perhaps encourage the Biden administration to change its tone and start behaving better towards Israel – its greatest friend and ally in the Middle East.
