The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for Ramadan and the release of all hostages.
The US abstained from the vote, and the other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution. The US had previously vetoed three resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The resolution demands an “immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire” and the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
On Friday, China and Russia vetoed a US-authored resolution that said it was “imperative” for a ceasefire in Gaza but only “in connection” with the release of hostages. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US didn’t vote in favor of the resolution passed on Monday because it didn’t agree with the language.
“We did not agree with everything with the resolution,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Certain key edits were ignored, including our request to add a condemnation of Hamas.”
She also hinted that the US opposition was due to the fact that the ceasefire was not explicitly tied to a hostage release. “Any ceasefire must come with the release of all hostages,” she said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby insisted the US decision not to veto the resolution did not amount to a change in policy and noted that the resolution is non-binding, so it won’t impact Israel’s military operations. But Israeli officials are fuming at the US for allowing it to pass. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled an Israeli delegation to Washington that was meant to discuss Israel’s plans to attack the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is packed with 1.5 million Palestinians.
“On the one hand, the resolution says that taking civilians hostage is in violation of international law, yet on the other hand — despite the fact that you know Hamas won’t listen to your calls and release the hostages — you demand a ceasefire,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan told the Security Council.
That is a pretty huge shift in US behavior.
what, abstaining?
Hell yes. Anything less than a veto is amazing.
US Abstains!
same as it ever was
So did Obama. That was years before Gaza was genocided. Kabuki.
wow Obama as well as the US ?
The key word in all this is “Ramadan”. The USA is still struggling to shrug off the post-9/11 “crusaders against Islam” attitude favoured by the “Whitest & Right-est” neocons.
Making an overture towards respecting Ramadan (and staying there instead of a Best Western if possible, for added optics) is American public image damage control.
and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a planned Israeli delegation to Washington
That’ll teach the US a lesson. No veto then no one gets to kiss hiss ass. /s
Didn’t they just approve billions in military aid? Pretty big asskissing.
Yes indeed. But the in-person kind is extra special. If Bibi stopped abruptly in person, there’d be a 10 senator pile up behind him with the lead senator buried deep. If you catch my drift.
Keypoint:
And the US just approved more genocide money.
It’s like the light bulb just went on. Hey, we can keep this shit going and pretend we care with the no veto.
democracy
The kiddie table passes a resolution that won’t stop one bomb or the Raffa invasion.
Let Hamas release all its hostages in return for its own people,and then the war should stop. Very simple.
Should and would are two very different things. You’re not listening to the Israeli government.
No, because as soon as the resistance did that the Zionist Holocaust Force would murder their entire country.
Well, Israel said they would invade Rafah on March 8th…! didn’t happen…! And that’s because of Ramadan implications…! They will invade Rafah after Ramadan is over…! So, this UNSC resolution is much ado about nothing…!
Don’t the Israelis have to report compliance with the ICJ ORDER TO END GENOCIDE in Gaza?
They filed their report at the end of February. So far, it hasn’t been made public, but you can probably guess what it says: “We’ve never engaged in actions in violation of the genocide convention and we aren’t doing so now.”
They seem to be committed to going rogue and defying the world. They can’t do that forever and they’d have to stop if the US insisted — and really meant it.
To be clear, the ICJ didn’t order them to “end” genocide, because it hasn’t yet formally ruled that they have engaged in genocide. It has twice ordered them not to commit genocide or to permit it, after finding that it is plausible that they have been engaged in genocidal behavior.
The ICJ already told the Likud to “immediately and effectively” stop killing Arabs on 26.Jan and again on 16.Feb.
No. The ICJ said nothing of the kind. Go read — carefully — the provisional measures announced on 1/26. On 2/16, the court’s action was essentially an emphatic reiteration of the January ruling.
https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf
Disagree – the 16.Feb language is clear and precise
‘Immediate and effective’
You hit the nail on the head.
Has the ICJ ordered the release of Israeli hostages-no-then until then,it has no moral authority.
Has Israel, or any other state, brought such a request for relief TO the ICJ? Courts rule on the cases brought to them, not on other things. the ICJ has also not ruled on whether vanilla or pistachio ice cream is better, whether the host is actually transubstantiated into the body of Christ, etc.
has there even been any evidence that there are actual hostages being held hostage? frankly, the claims of “rape by Hamas on Oct 7” were patently false https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64351
so why should we believe any claims regarding hostages?
Besides the thousands of imprisoned and TORTURED Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including children.
Moral authority? What is that? Democratic criminal governments drowned morality, human decency in a bucket of s**t. They don’t even know what it means.
Morality: principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior.
In your eyes that justifies genocide by starvation and bombs of thousands of innocent children, not to mention all the other crimes against humanity. What is wrong with you, can’t you differentiate between right and wrong? Forget about politics think about simple human decency.
Utterly irrelevant. Without Chapter 7 language there is no “teeth” to this Resolution. Netanyahu will ignore it, Biden and the Democrats will say, “See, we did everything we could!” – and more Palestinians will die.
Mercouris yesterday was touting this as some big change in US behavior forced on Biden by his election concerns. This is because Mercouris is always wringing his hands about the death toll and can’t objectively analyze the reality. In fact, as I said earlier, it’s just one more CYA move because of those election concerns, but not a significant change in US behavior.
Nothing changes until 1 of 2 things happens: 1) Biden cuts off the aid, and/or 2) the Axis of Resistance trashes Israel. And 1) ain’t gonna happen. So anyone wanting the death toll to stop had better pray that Israel goes into Lebanon sooner rather than later (probably after Ramadan as others have suggested) and gets its butt whipped.
Never say never, but I agree it is unlikely.
Israel’s days are numbered with their current course of actions. Time to rethink the entire situation and make peace yourselves because if they don’t do it, someone else will and, as the story goes, they won’t exist anymore but none of us wants to see that.
And you can take that to the bank….Ahem, the Peace.
Many of the people on the site hate Israel and do want to see an end to its existence-let them wait.
You confuse hating them with hating their actions. Apartheid and genocide aren’t popular with people with an ounce of empathy.
The Zionist Settlers are the haters, open your eyes, the haters control Tel Aviv and Washington DC. The Zionists are the curse of the world, our planet.
There will be no peace as long as there is a Zionist Israel. They have to be wiped out and Israel must be disarmed for the good of the Israeli people. The Zionist Settlers are fanatic haters, to see how they block and act denying any aid to Palestinians is mind boggling. Their children are mindless haters and they will be Israel’s future, the future IDF scumbags? I would not want them as neighbors, they are scum.
Will Israel be asked to release its hostages? It holds thousands. Arrested for no stated reasons, given no hearings much less trials, and held indefinitely, they are mere hostages.
My reading of the UNSC resolution language is Israel releases all ~10,000 Arab hostages and the Palestinian Government releases maybe a dozen Israeli civilians still held. The ~100 IDF and Settler paramilitaries are POWs and seem not to be covered under the UNSC release provision
Yes, Hamas should immediately declare its agreement.
Ware Hamas men,if not paramilitaries? How do you define paramilitaries? If Hamas wants to end the suffering of its own people,then it can easily work out a deal.The UN has nothing of relevance to facts on the ground.
Israeli para’s are decomissioned IDF and armed occupiers (“settlers”) in the lands outside the UNSCR242 boundaries.
You mean outside the UNR 181 boundries don’t you ? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2cf3ce75ffa0f1a356aaf6d97628e2ad5106805c4c9485d70b80d7c87dc3a12e.jpg
Yes, you’re right, that is the original territorial partition. But I don’t read that either is formally declare a “state”??
Hamas is not a regular army, they are voluntary resistance, freedom fighters, without heavy equipment like tanks and jet fighters and bombers, no air defense, The IDF is not fighting a regular army, the IDF is using tanks and bombs against unarmed civilians some 70% WOMEN and CHILDREN including new born babies, toddlers and pregnant women. They deny basic necessities like food, water, energy and needed medical supply and the IDF destroyed all medical facilities. Mountains of war crimes committed by the valueless civilized western democracies. Are you proud of it?
UN Rapporteurs do have the facts, but you are in denial.
This is not a war, it is a bloody massacre of unarmed people, a GENOCIDE if there ever was one.
The military wing of the Palestinian Government in Gaza is called the Al-Qassem Brigades.
Hamas is a civilian political party.
Those who do not have blood on their hands should be released.
WOMEN AND CHILDREN HAVE NO BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS, SHOULD THEY BE RELEASED?
WHO, BY YOUR STANDARDS, SHOULD BE RELEASED?
The Palestinians where peaceful demonstrators when they were arrested for crimes like throwing stones at IDF and kept in prison and torture for years.
This is how Breitbart reports to dumb right wing Trump followers…
“The resolution passed 14-0, with the United States abstaining, rather than using its veto power against the resolution, as Russia and China routinely use their veto powers to protect their allies. Four previous efforts to pass a ceasefire resolution failed.”
Will the crime minister also cancel his invitation to travel to US to address the Israeli Congress…?
The resolution is nonbinding and only fourteen more days left in Ramadan…! Which is not long enough to convey a substantial amount of aid…! Israel will not comply…!
All UNSC resolutions are considered binding. Read Article 25 of the Charter.
Of course, binding is not necessarily the same as enforceable in the real world.
“Of course, binding is not necessarily the same as enforceable in the real world.”
That’s what I meant to say…!
It is still fraughtwith problems.
A must-watch excellent analysis of this on The Grayzone’s latest video. Agrees with what I said – this is a toothless Resolution. Covers the hidden details. Actually shows the UNSC vote. Look at the expression on the US Ambassador to the UN – she is so pissed she couldn’t veto this one because, as Max and Aaron say, it’s simply because the US couldn’t afford to do it again – so instead, they watered it down and pronounced it “unenforceable.”
Programmed to kill – The Grayzon
Q: How to know when you’re hearing propaganda?
A: An official of the US Government is speaking.
Ntm the “Demands” verbiage of Resolution #2728, all UNSC resolutions are “binding” and international law per the statement the UN issued following Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s intentional little ”this nonbinding resolution” controversy.
See how well that worked out for the US & Israel, the western “nonbinding”narrative is set in stone no matter how much the rest of the world focues on content and “Demands.”
Ohh boy! Bibi’s hands are shaking with rage, but luckily AIPAC phone number is on speed dial.
United Nations security councils votes are binding.