The Vetoed Security Council Resolution Would Have Given Hamas a Lifeline

The Biden administration quite correctly vetoed a Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in Gaza, which if enacted would have rescued Hamas, now on the ropes, from the total defeat the Israelis seek. Still worse, the Resolution, while calling for the release of the Israeli hostages, did not make that ceasefire conditional upon their release. More on this vote, and the shameful resolution, can be found here: “US vetoes UN Security Council resolution on Gaza ceasefire,” by David Brunnstrom and Simon Lewis, Reuters, November 20, 2024:

The United States on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza, drawing criticism of the Biden administration for once again blocking international action aimed at halting Israel’s war with Hamas.

The 15-member council voted on a resolution put forward by 10 non-permanent members that called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the 13-month conflict and separately demanded the release of hostages.

Only the U.S. voted against, using its veto as a permanent council member to block the resolution.

Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said Washington had made clear it would only support a resolution that explicitly calls for the immediate release of hostages as part of a ceasefire.

“A durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandoned that necessity, and for that reason, the United States could not support it,” he said.

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Wood said the U.S. had sought compromise, but the text of the proposed resolution would have sent a “dangerous message” to Palestinian militant group Hamas that “there’s no need to come back to the negotiating table.”…

The Security Council Resolution would have given Hamas a lifeline — an immediate ceasefire would leave its combatants, with thousands of them continuing to hold on in northern Gaza, still standing and able to present themselves as having “withstood the mighty Zionist military machine.” Still worse, it would not make such a ceasefire conditional on the release of the Israeli hostages.

The IDF estimates it has killed 19,000 Hamas operatives. In addition, an average of 800 Gazans die each month from diseases and accidents, and have for some years. Assuming that average holds steady, of the 44,000 people in Gaza Hamas has claimed have been killed by the IDF, the civilian deaths can be calculated as follows: 44,000 total deaths minus 19,000 (Hamas combatants) equals 25,000, from which we can further subtract 10,400 (800/mo. X 13 months), giving a total of war-related civilian deaths of 14,600. Keep that figure in mind.

Food security experts have warned that famine is imminent among Gaza’s 2.3 million people….

That “imminent” famine in Gaza has been “imminent” for the past five months, but strangely, it never does occur, but only recedes, like a will-o’-the-wisp. How many times have we been assured by Hamas spokesmen, disguised as the Gaza Health Ministry, and the media that dutifully report their claims as fact, that “famine” is about to spread all over Gaza, and then a month later, “famine in Gaza is about to descend” and so on, right up to the present moment, where we are again told that “famine is imminent” in Gaza. but after dozen warnings of an “imminent famine,” it still has not yet arrived.

France’s ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said the resolution rejected by the U.S. “very firmly” required the release of hostages….

No, M. de Riviere is wrong. The resolution put to the 15-member council by its 10 non-permanent members demanded an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties; and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.” So even if after the ceasefire , Hamas rearms and regroups, Israel is not supposed to break this “permanent” ceasefire by preemptively attacking the terror group. Furthermore, while there is a second clause in the resolution. calling for the release of the Israeli hostages, those two clauses — that about the ceasefire and that about the hostages — are not linked. The only way to “very firmly” call for the release of hostages is by making the ceasefire conditional on the release of the hostages. That is the language which the US demanded, but the 10 non-permanent refused to change the language of the resolution. It is shameful that the Americans were again left alone in standing up for Israel by exercising their veto; both the U.K. and France, the other permanent members belonging to the Western alliance, voted for the resolution.

China’s U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said each time the United States had exercised its veto to protect Israel, the number of people killed in Gaza had steadily risen….

The number of people killed in Gaza does rise; that’s what happens in a war. But if the US had not vetoed the resolution, the terror group Hamas would have been saved from total destruction, and would then have been able to regroup, rearm, and recruit new fighters. China, of course, is indifferent to the fate of the Jewish state.

America stood alone against the Security Council resolution at the UN. This took place at the same time as 19 Democratic Senators were voting for a resolution to prevent Israel from obtaining tank rounds, mortars, and JDAMS. Their numbers might have been larger had not the Democrat in the White House lobbied so vigorously against the resolution. With his energetic lobbying at the Senate against Bernie Sander’s resolution about curtailing weapons for Israel, and his standing firmly with Israel at the UN, even those of us who have found much to criticize in Biden’s administration might say that as far as support for Israel was concerned, this has been Joe Biden’s finest hour.