The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power in the international system. On the one hand vested with enormous latitude in order to preserve international peace and security, it remains checked, limited and, it can be argued, crippled by an all too regular use of the veto by members of the permanent five powers (US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France).<\/p>\n
When it comes to the bleeding and crushing of human life in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (32,300 dead<\/a> Palestinians and rising), resolutions demanding a cease fire of a conflict that began with the attack on Israeli soil by Hamas militants have tended to pass into voting oblivion.\u00a0 The United States, Israel\u2019s great power patron and defender, has been consistent in using its veto power to ensure it, exercising it on no less than three occasions since October 7.<\/p>\n On March 25, a change of heart was registered.\u00a0 Washington, reputationally battered for its unconditional support for Israel, haughtily defied by its own ally in being reduced to airdrops of aid for the expiring residents of Gaza, and resoundingly ignored by the Netanyahu government in moderating the savagery of its operations in the strip, abstained. \u00a0In terms of resolution protocol, it meant that 14 out of 15 Council members favoured the vote.<\/p>\n Resolution 2728<\/a> calls for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan \u201cleading to a lasting sustainable\u201d halt to hostilities, the \u201cimmediate and unconditional release of all hostages\u201d, \u201censuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs\u201d and \u201cdemands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain\u201d.\u00a0 The resolution further emphasises \u201cthe urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance to and reinforce the protection of civilians in the entire Gaza Strip\u201d.\u00a0 All barriers regarding the provision of humanitarian assistance, in accordance with international humanitarian law\u201d are also to be lifted.<\/p>\n The wording of the resolution has a degree of lexical ambiguity only tolerable to oily diplomats and paper mad bureaucrats.\u00a0 Neither Hamas nor Israeli hostages are mentioned, ghosts unacknowledged at the chattering feast.\u00a0 Does the latter, for instance, cover Palestinian prisoners?<\/p>\n The justification from the US delegation was uneven and skewed. The abstention, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained<\/a>, \u201creaffirms the US position that a ceasefire of any duration come as part of an agreement to release hostages in Gaza.\u201d\u00a0 While some provisions of the text had caused disagreement in Washington, the sponsors of the resolution had made sufficient changes \u201cconsistent with our principled position that any ceasefire text must be paired with the release of the hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n Mild mannered approval for this sloppy, weak position (the apologetics of abstentions are rarely principled, suggesting a lack of moral timbre) followed. Hadar Susskind, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now, even praised the stance<\/a> in Newsweek<\/em>.\u00a0 \u201cBy allowing the resolution to pass the US has staked out a position in favor of ending this horrible war, and in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s prioritization of his political well-being over the current and future good of Israelis and Palestinians alike.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Netanyahu cancelled a planned Washington visit of two of his ministers, Ron Dermer and Tzachi Hanegbi, to specifically discuss the impending attack on Rafah, though much of this is bound to be studiously ceremonial, given the language of inevitability associated with the planned operation.\u00a0 Besides, neither are versed in anything related to military matters.\u00a0 But just as one pays attention to a wealthy, doddering relative who keeps funding your bad habits in the hope that you might, one day, see sense, it pays to feign courtesy and interest from time to time to your benefactor.<\/p>\n As if to prove this point, John F. Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, reminded<\/a> journalists that various other meetings would still be taking place between the US and Israel, notably those between President Joe Biden\u2019s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, and with Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III.<\/p>\n In a gruff statement, the Israeli PM rebuked the abstention as \u201ca retreat from the consistent American position since the beginning of the war\u201d.\u00a0 In taking that stance, Washington had given \u201cHamas hope that international pressure will enable them to achieve a cease-fire without freeing the hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s approach to Hamas, Gaza and the Palestinians has become one with his obsession with political survival and rekindling the fires of the Israeli electorate.\u00a0 As far back as December, a Likud official was already making the observation<\/a> that the PM had adopted the posture of a vote getting electioneer even as the war was being prosecuted.\u00a0 \u201cNetanyahu is in full campaign mode.\u00a0 While the external political threats are gradually increasing, Netanyahu knows that over time the attacks and the calls to remove him will also increase.\u00a0 He has been acting first to win back his base.\u201d<\/p>\n For the UN Secretary General, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, the resolution had to be implemented.\u00a0 \u201cFailure would be unforgivable.\u201d\u00a0 But failure to do so, certainly in the context of the planned assault on Rafah so solemnly denounced by the international community, is most likely.<\/p>The post Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza Passes<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The UN Security Council presents one of the great contradictions of power in the international system. On the one hand vested with enormous latitude in order to preserve international peace and security, it remains checked, limited and, it can be argued, crippled by an all too regular use of the veto by members of the [\u2026]<\/p>\n The post Distinctions Without Difference: The Security Council on Gaza Passes<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,5272,81,287,288,82,15199,57281,77097,5208,473,18600,36,166],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1576730"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586268,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576730\/revisions\/1586268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1576730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1576730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1576730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}