For the third time since October, the United States has vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
The measure (which was put forward by Algeria) received 13 votes in favor, with an abstention from the United Kingdom. More than 29,100 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its assault on Gaza in October.
“A vote in favor of this draft resolution is support to the Palestinians’ right to life. Conversely, voting against it implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflicted upon them,” said Algeria’s UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama before the vote.
The U.S. veto was hardly surprising, as US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield had already indicated which way she’d vote.
“Any action this council takes right now should help, not hinder these sensitive and ongoing negotiations. And we believe that the resolution on the table right now would, in fact, negatively impact those negotiations,” she explained. “Demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace. Instead, it could extend the fighting between Hamas and Israel.”
The United States government can not actually explain what any of that means. We are expected to believe that they are on the verge of some top-secret progress that will deliver a humanitarian pause, so they couldn’t possibly back a ceasefire. There’s nothing to indicate any of that is true, but they keep implying it.
There is something notable about the veto this time, even if it was expected.
In recent weeks we have seen more public criticisms of Israel from the administration. Biden dispatched a number of foreign policy officials to Michigan to run damage control in the swing state. People close to the matter say Biden’s growing increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu.
Reuters reported that the U.S. actually proposed a Security Council resolution calling for a temporary ceasefire and opposing a ground offensive in Rafah.
We are witnessing an incredible disconnect between the current posture of the administration and its ongoing support for Israel’s assault. Not only does it continue to block UN resolutions and shun international efforts to hold the country accountable, it’s also preparing to send over more weapons.
The details can be found in a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, with the amazing title, “U.S. Plans to Send Weapons to Israel Amid Biden Push for Cease-Fire Deal.”
Yes, while The White House calls for a temporary ceasefire and expresses anxiety over Rafah, it’s reviewing a plan to send Israel a new shipment of MK-82 bombs, KMU-572 Joint Direct Attack Munitions, and FMU-139 bomb fuses. The paper says the package is worth “tens of millions of dollars.”
Of course, this is on top of the more than $3.8 billion in military aid that the U.S. sends Israel every year, the Iron Dome money, and the additional $14 billion that Biden is calling on Congress to approve.
How do you sell any of this stuff if you’re a Democrat? The move is to deny reality.
You can find an amazing example of this mindset in a recent interview with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
The congresswoman had a conversation with journalist Tim Sebastian at the annual Munich Security Conference. When asked about the U.S. potentially cutting off military aid over the actions of Israel, Pelosi inexplicably claimed that no U.S. weapons have been connected to recent Israeli attacks.
“Israel is very well equipped with weaponry,” said the former House speaker. “There’s nothing that we have sent since October 7 that has contributed to this brutality. In the longer run, they are in a dangerous neighborhood…”
It’s unclear who is possibly buying this, or buying any of the Biden administration’s recent rhetoric.
Bernie and Gaza
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ legacy has undoubtedly taken a hit in recent months.
It wasn’t so long ago that he was viewed as a symbol for a growing faction of congressional progressives and a resurgence of interest in socialism among young people.
However, since October 7, he has lagged behind The Squad on the question of Israel. He’s pushed failed Senate efforts to block further military aid for Netanyahu’s right-wing government, but he still hasn’t backed a permanent ceasefire in the region.
It’s not like Sanders was ever fantastic on the issue of Palestine, but during his 2020 presidential campaign, he brought up the living conditions of Palestinians and the West Bank. He was also the only candidate to consistently broach the subject of conditioning military aid to the country. Something that Biden called a “gigantic mistake” while running for president.
Sanders was already being criticized for his position last year.
“The collective upset at Sanders’s unmoving response is emblematic of the frustration and disappointment felt by his constituents as the war continually feels closer to home,” wrote Vermont activists Anthony Apodaca and Kellie Kuenzle at our site in December. “Since Israel launched its all-out assault on Gaza following the Hamas attacks on October 7, Sander’s statements have continually proven problematic and contradictory.”
“We ask Senator Sanders: Are you not aware that even the Israeli military takes Hamas’ offers of long-term truce seriously?,” they continued. “Are you not aware that in 2008, Israel — not Hamas —broke the negotiated ceasefire? Why are you not also asking whether or not it would be possible to have a ceasefire with a government like Israel? If, as you yourself admit, Netanyahu’s Likud party was formed on the premise that “between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty,” why are you not characterizing the Israeli government as an irrationally hostile entity that must be removed from power, as you have repeatedly insinuated about Hamas?”
Last week Sanders was interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters at a book festival in Ireland. Days later, he was interviewed by Novara Media’s Ash Sarkar. She asked him if Israel’s assault on Gaza constituted genocide three times, but he ducked the question each time.
There was a striking moment later in the interview.
Sarkar asked Sanders whether he supported the nonviolent BDS movement, which aims to hold Israel accountable to international law.
“I am nervous of economic boycotts of any country..,” said Sanders.
Sarkar then asked him if he felt nervous about the boycott of South Africa during the 1980s.
“Uhhh, what I thought was that an apartheid state at that point…it was important to put pressure, but people can do as they want,” replied Sanders.
Virtually no U.S. lawmakers actually support the BDS movement, so it’s not like Sanders is some kind of outlier here. However, his response captures the consistent double standard on Israel and politicians’ inability to justify it in any way that makes sense.
Odds & Ends
???????? ‘Why any decent person supports a ceasefire, but not Biden’
????️ ‘Momentum grows for protest vote against Biden in Michigan primary’
???????? Here’s IfNotNow national spokesperson Eva Borgwardt from a press release on Pelosi’s claim that no U.S. weapons have contributed to recent Israeli brutality: “It’s deeply disturbing that senior Democratic Party leaders are putting their heads in the sand about the fact that the weapons transfers they support are being used by the Israeli military to carry out atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza.”
???? Semafor: ‘Pro-Israel group targets Post reporter’
???????? Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-TN) on Palestinians: “I think we should kill ‘em all.”
???? Electronic Intifada: ‘When past activism meets present’
???????? Check out this exchange with State Department spokesman Matthew Miller at a briefing this week:
Question: Okay. Thank you. I have a question about a statement by the UN experts from the UN Human Rights Office yesterday, expressing alarm over allegations of human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls in the West Bank, in Gaza is subjected to. They said – the UN experts said that Palestinian women and girls in detention have been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault by male Israeli army officers. At least two of them were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence. Have you seen those allegations.. and do you have any reaction?
Miller: — I have seen the allegations. I cannot independently confirm the reports. I will say that we have been clear that civilians and detained individuals must be treated humanely and in accordance with international humanitarian law. We strongly urge Israel to thoroughly and transparently investigate credible allegations and ensure any accountability for abuses and violations, and that will continue to be our position.
Question: Have you heard back from your previous call for investigation into the killing of Hind Rajab?
Miller: We have heard that those investigations are underway. We have – it’s our understanding that the investigations have not yet been concluded.
Question: When you said you had no independent confirmation of what the UN experts found —
Miller: I mean, the underlying —
Question: Yeah, yeah, I get it. But did you ever get – did you ever have confirmation of what Hamas allegedly did to Israelis who were – women and girls who were —
Miller: There are Israeli medical experts who have testified to that, and that is something we consider credible, yes.
Question: So you have – you consider those instances to be confirmed, but not what the UN was talking about yesterday?
Miller: We have seen this report and we have called for an investigation to confirm whether the allegations are true or not.
Question: I get it. And who – and if you’re willing to take a word of an Israeli – and I’m not saying you shouldn’t – but if you’re willing to take the word of Israeli medical experts on what happened to the people who were abducted on October 7th, whose word are you willing to take – if not the UN, who —
Miller: A full, independent, credible investigation —
Question: Would it have to be – would it have to be an Israeli medical expert?
Miller: We are calling for that – and, no, of course it would not have to be an Israeli medical expert. A credible medical expert, a credible —
Question: Or a Palestinian —
Miller: A credible – I don’t want to prescribe who it would be – a credible medical expert that can testify to it would be something we would look at, of course. It would not have to be —
Question: Well, you would look at, but you’d take – you’ve taken —
Miller: I’m not going to – because that’s one where we have seen the outcome of the investigation and are able to opine on it. I’m not going to opine on a matter that hasn’t been conducted.
Question: Well, yeah, but you didn’t do your own independent investigation into what I think is pretty much well accepted by everybody that there were instances of rape and sexual assault on October 7th, so —
Miller: And the circumstances very much matter, and in this – in this —
Question: I completely understand that, but I’m just —
Miller: It is a well – it is a well – hold on. It is a well-accepted fact. With respect to this —
Question: Yeah, no, no. It might be a well-accepted fact —
Miller: No, this – hold on. No, let me – just let me finish. It – just —
Question: — but you’re saying that – but you’re saying that you have what you consider to be independent confirmation that those..attacks, those assaults, happened. And in this case — s
Miller: Independent confirmation – it is a well-accepted fact because the investigations produced credible evidence that not just the United States accepted but countries —
Question: Okay.
Miller: No, no, let me finish – countries around the world accepted. With respect to these new allegations, we want to see an investigation, and we will, of course, look at the investigation, make our judgements when that investigation is concluded.
Question: Okay. So it’s just too early for you?
Miller: Correct.
⚖️ Common Dreams: ‘At ICJ, Lawyer for Palestine Rips US for Defending ‘Whatever Offenses’ Israel Commits’
????️ Counterpunch: ‘Big Trouble for Biden in Michigan’
???????? New paper from Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights: ‘Anti-Palestinian at the Core: The Origins and Growing Dangers of U.S. Antiterrorism Law’
????️ Truthout: ‘Local Papers Across the US Are Refusing to Cover the Movement for Ceasefire’
???? Detroit Free Press: ‘Trump vs. Biden in Michigan: New poll results revealed’:
President Joe Biden, despite visiting Macomb County early this month and dispatching administration officials and campaign aides to Michigan in recent weeks, still appears to be trailing former President Donald Trump in a head-to-head matchup in the state, 45%-41%, with 14% undecided, a new poll showed Wednesday.
That 4-percentage-point split is equal to the poll’s margin of error, meaning statistically speaking the race could be tied. But a number of Michigan polls in recent months have shown Trump ahead of Biden, suggesting the former president does have an edge on the incumbent, even if it’s only a slim one.
And the new poll indicates that Biden’s refusal to heed calls, especially among younger, more progressive Democrats and Michigan’s large Arab American and Muslim communities, to demand an Israeli end to deadly counterattacks in the Gaza Strip, appears to be playing a role in his support or lack thereof — a situation which could potentially cost him a vital swing state Trump won in 2016 before Biden recaptured it for Democrats four years ago.
???? Columbia Spectator: ‘Columbia doesn’t just not care about its students—it puts them in harm’s way to advance its own interests’
???? CBS: ‘Protestors demand ceasefire in Gaza during NBA All-Star Weekend in Indianapolis’
????️ New York Times: ‘Protesting Biden, Gaza Supporters Warn, ‘Don’t Blame Us’ if You Lose’
???????? KQED: ‘Protesters Briefly Block Highway 101 in SF, Call for End to War in Gaza’
???? New York Times: ‘I’m the Mayor of Dearborn, Mich., and My City Feels Betrayed’
???? Truthout: ‘We Can’t Watch Genocide and Do Nothing. Now Is the Time for Renewed BDS’ (Excerpt from Abolition and Social Work: Possibilities, Paradoxes, and the Practice of Community Care © 2024, Haymarket Books.)
???? CBS: ‘Durham City Council passes resolution supporting ceasefire between Israel and Palestine’
???? The Intercept: ‘With Netanyahu threatening catastrophic Rafah invasion, Biden prepares to send Israel more bombs’
???? Consequence Sound: ‘Roger Waters Asks Bono to Stop ‘Being an Enormous Sh*t’ in Light of His Support of Israel’
???????? Al Jazeera: ‘US proposes UN resolution calling for ‘temporary ceasefire’ in Gaza’
???? Astoria Post: ‘More than 1,000 protesters gather in western Queens calling for ceasefire in Gaza’
???????? CNN: ‘US vetoes UN resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza after proposing a temporary halt in fighting’
???????? Counterpunch: ‘The US Must Force Israel to Stop a Catastrophic Military Campaign in Rafah‘
⚕️ Democracy Now: ‘What I Saw Wasn’t War — It Was Annihilation,’ Says U.S. Doctor Who Volunteered in Gaza Hospital’
Stay safe out there,
Michael
Not surprised at the UK’s abstention at the UN yesterday. Politically, the situation here has degenerated into farce, with a House of Commons debate on calling for a ceasefire in Gaza just a chaotic mess, with parties trying to spike other parties’ motions rather than reaching any sort of consensus. The Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, seems to have handled the issue badly with aggrieved MPs now calling on him to resign. What a depressing mess!
NB. The Speaker in the House of Commons, for readers are unfamiliar with the role, chairs the parliamentary sessions and is often called upon to rule on matters of procedure. He or she is elected by MPs and resigns membership of their party but remains the MP for the constituency they were elected to represent and, by convention, stands unopposed at general elections. It’s a rather unsatisfactory arrangement, to say the least.
Sinwar is culpable for a great crime, which makes it difficult for any politician to align with his objective now.