by Mike Whitney, The Unz Review:
After six months of blocking ceasefire resolutions at the United Nations, the US delegation submitted its own draft resolution on Friday ostensibly aimed at stopping the hostilities so humanitarian aid can reach the starving people of Gaza. Unfortunately, the American team linked the proposed ceasefire to the release of hostages and to the repudiation of Hamas which merely restates the Israeli position on a final settlement. The draft resolution also failed to explicitly demand an immediate ceasefire, but inserted deliberately-ambiguous language intended to give Israel sufficient legal flexibility to continue its aggression. In short, the US draft resolution was a cynical hoax concocted by the backers of Israel’s bloody campaign in Gaza that blew up in the US delegations face heaping more shame on the administration and the American people.
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The media’s coverage of the ceasefire fiasco has been predictably biased and deceptive. The US delegation did not “call” for an “immediate ceasefire” as has been widely reported in the West. In fact, that was the issue that prompted the Russian and Chinese vetoes. What the draft resolution said was that “an immediate and sustained ceasefire” was “imperative.” There is a world of difference between a resolution that invokes the authority of the UN to ‘demand’ a ceasefire, and one that merely says a ceasefire is necessary. And, it is a difference that senior-level diplomats fully grasp, because in diplomacy, words matter. The words that the US delegation chose, were intentionally chosen to subvert the process, link the ceasefire to a release of the hostages, and to give Israel a green light to continue its military operations until a diplomatic agreement could be reached. The Russian ambassador summed it up like this:
If this resolution were adopted, it would definitively close the debate on the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, give Israel a free hand and condemn Gaza and its entire population to extermination or expulsion.
He’s right, this maliciously-worded resolution was designed to legitimize Israel’s rampage and provide legal cover for future aggression. Here is the excerpt from the US draft resolution that has drawn the most attention and criticism:
(The Security Council) Determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire to protect civilians on all sides, allow for the delivery of essential humanitarian assistance, and alleviate humanitarian suffering, and towards that end unequivocally supports ongoing international diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.
And here’s a brief explanation from political analyst Trita Parsi:
The clause does not demand a ceasefire but determines that it is imperative. Its support is not directly for the ceasefire but for the negotiation process the U.S. has been co-leading and whose parameters the U.S. has sought to determine in favor of Israel. The text points out that this effort to secure a ceasefire is “in connection with the release of all remaining hostages. Why the Ceasefire Proposal Failed at the UNSC, Responsible Statecraft
In other words, the draft resolution is not aimed at bringing the hostilities to an end at all but, rather, to transforming the Security Council into another battlefield on which Israel’s bloody war can be waged. So, to dismiss this meticulously-engineered hoax as merely another example of US trickery, vastly understates the real objective of the operation which is to provide legal cover for the killing of civilians. Andre Damon at the World Socialist Web Site summed it up like this:
The cynicism of Biden’s call for a “ceasefire” while continuing to fund and arm the government massacring over a hundred Palestinians every day and starving the entire Gazan population is beyond description. The Biden administration hopes that by proclaiming its support for a “ceasefire” loudly enough, it will make the world’s population forget that it fully supports and enables the US-Israeli “final solution” of the Palestinian question. The Fraud of Biden’s call for a “ceasefire” in Gaza, Andre Damon, World Socialist Web Site
The point we’ve been trying to make becomes clearer when we consider the comments of US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield who said the following just prior to the voting:
Many of us here share the same goals. First, we want to see an immediate and sustained ceasefire as part of a deal that leads to the release of all hostages which are being held by Hamas and other groups and that will allow much more life-saving humanitarian aid to get into Gaza … By adopting the resolution before us, we can put pressure on Hamas to accept the deal on the table... I urge all council members to vote “yes”; to vote for a resolution that at long last condemns Hamas for its horrific terrorist attacks and sexual violence that makes clear that all civilians ….should be able to live without fear of violence. United Nations News (see video)
Thomas-Greenfield is mistaken; the purpose of the ceasefire is not to resolve the hostage crisis or to “condemn Hamas” or “to put pressure on Hamas to accept the deal on the table.” Those are Israel’s objectives not the Security Council’s. The purpose of the ceasefire is to stop the killing of innocent civilians and to make sure they get the food and medicine they need to survive. Full stop. As we said earlier, the US ambassador is merely parroting the demands of the Israeli government and then characterizing those demands as a ceasefire. Naturally, the Russians saw through this ruse and voted accordingly. Nevertheless, the ploy has succeeded in providing the Biden team with a welcome public relations triumph by making them look like peacemakers. (which is entirely undeserved.)
