The “imminent” ceasefire voted almost unanimously in the UN Security Council on Monday (14-0), with the lone US abstention, angered Israel and heightened the perception of isolation of this country.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged Washington, its ally and protector and until now its shield against global criticism, for not vetoing the resolution. The Israeli president canceled a visit by his advisers to Washington and described the US attitude as “withdrawing from a principled position” and “backtracking”.
Netanyahu had warned Washington not to allow this situation to arise and asked it to use the veto. But later he found that his request had fallen on deaf ears. The message the White House responded to was that patience has a limit.
The United States ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, in an unprecedented demarcation in this crisis, did not want to reject the proposal, a mandatory condition for the veto. In this way, after four failures (three due to a veto by the United States and one by the Russia-China tandem on Friday), he facilitated the executive arm of the United Nations Organization to approve the “ceasefire demand” the holy month of Ramadan for Muslims, a period that ends on April 9.
This “demand” – key word that avoids the term demand – links a direct request to stop the Israeli military operation, which has already caused 32,000 deaths, and the release of the 100 hostages held by Hamas since October 7, when he attacked Israel and murdered 1,200 people. The document also calls for the distribution of humanitarian assistance to be allowed, both for the distribution of food and for treating the wounded.
Another different thing is that the decision becomes a reality. Israel made it clear that it has no intention of complying. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was in the US capital, retorted: “We have no moral right to stop the war in Gaza until the hostages are home.”
The U.S. abstention comes at a time of rising tensions between President Joe Biden and Netanyahu, who has publicly repeatedly rejected Washington’s demand that it not invade Rafah, in southern Gaza, and rejected requests to accept the creation of a Palestinian state.
Thomas-Greenfield’s arguments at UN headquarters in New York were amplified by his boss, Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Since the final text does not refer to the condemnation of Hamas, which is essential for us, we could not support it,” he said. “This failure to condemn Hamas is particularly difficult to understand after just a few days that the world has once again witnessed a horrific terrorist act,” he said with reference to the armed attack on the concert hall in near Moscow But he agreed on the ceasefire and the release of hostages, in line with what his country is negotiating in Qatar with Israel and Egypt.
There was applause in the room after the result was announced, the first time such a decision has been made after almost five months of war. “Today is a great day for the Middle East and to silence the weapons”, congratulated the representative of Slovenia, one of the ten nations that endorsed the proposal led by Mozambique and Algeria.
Hours before the vote, António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, had declared in Jordan that “we are seeing a growing consensus in the international community that tells the Israelis that the ceasefire is necessary and I am also observing it. I have heard from the United States, the European Union, not to mention the Muslim world, that they have told Israel that the ground invasion of Rafah could mean a humanitarian disaster.
Consensus after four failures to call for a ceasefire as a result of the demonic situation of international geopolitics. The US vetoed the proposal three times. On Friday, Washington presented its own, and Russia and China vetoed it.
“The blood of the Israelis is cheap”, lamented the ambassador of this country, Gilad Erdan. “The injustice ends now,” added Palestinian representative Ryad Mansur. Gaza is actually a long way from New York.
