The Biden administration follows in Obama’s footsteps and abstains in the UN regarding Israel
It’s all just propaganda anyway. Votes like this in the UN have no teeth and are just ways to show Israel how little support it has and how much support Hamas has in the international community known as the UN:
The United Nations Security Council on Monday passed its first resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza after the U.S. abstained from the vote on Israel’s war against Hamas.
The final vote was 14 in favor, no votes against and one abstention. After the vote, the council broke into applause.
The resolution calls for an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and for the immediate release of all hostages.
The vote comes just two days after Russia and China vetoed a resolution from the U.S. that tied a cease-fire to the release of hostages.
Why didn’t the administration veto this more recent resolution? Could it possibly have something to do with the importance of the vote in the state of Michigan in November? (And yes, that’s sarcasm; of course it does.)
This is the sort of ridiculous posturing involved:
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Washington could not agree with the resolution because it did not condemn Hamas for Oct. 7. But she said they “fully support” other critical objectives in the measure, allowing for an abstention.
“This should be a season of peace,” she said of Ramadan. “This resolution rightly acknowledges that during the month of Ramadan we must recommit to peace.”
“Recommit” to peace with an entity – Hamas – that has zero interest in peace unless it’s the peace that comes with the Islamic domination of the entire region and then hopefully, after that, the world (although actually, the Muslim world itself is rent by bitter and violent divisions).
This was Netanyahu’ response to the US abstention:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he will not send a delegation as planned to Washington after the United States refrained from vetoing a U.N. Security Council proposal calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Netanyahu, according to a statement from his office, said that Washington’s failure to block the proposal was a “clear retreat” from its previous position, and would hurt war efforts against Hamas, as well as efforts to release over 130 hostages in Gaza captivity. …
The White House denied that the U.S. abstention reflected a change in American policy.
It actually doesn’t represent a change; the administration has given a purposely mixed message ever since Israel began its operations in Gaza. And it continues the policy of the Obama administration in the UN, in which Obama’s parting shot – after the 2016 election of Trump but before Trump had been inaugurated – was to abstain in a Security Council vote about Israel’s settlements. The abstention was seen at the time as unusual and highly significant (I went into this in detail in the post I just linked).
In other news about the war in Gaza, we have this about the ongoing battle in al Shifa Hospital [emphasis mine]:
“Right now, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists are barricading themselves inside Shifa hospital wards. Hamas is destroying Shifa Hospital,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in an English-language video statement. “Hamas is firing from inside the Shifa emergency room and maternity ward and throwing explosive devices from the Shifa burn ward. Terrorists hiding around the hospital fired mortars at our forces, causing extensive damage to the hospital buildings.”
The IDF said the number of confirmed members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad captured by troops at the Gaza City medical center had risen to 500, out of over 800 suspects arrested since the raid began last week.
Hamas has said that at least 13 patients have died during the ongoing IDF raid, alleging that they were deprived of medication or that their ventilators stopped working after Israeli forces cut hospital electricity, The New York Times reported.
International law stipulates that while a medical facility is a protected site in conflict, it loses that status if it is used for military activity. Israel has offered evidence Hamas uses such facilities as cover for terror purposes and says the group plunders humanitarian aid to take supplies for its fighters, depriving the civilian population.
Going to the Times article just linked, I found this headline and subtitle: “Witnesses Describe Fear and Deprivation at Besieged Hospital in Gaza: Several patients have died as a result of the Israeli military assault, the Gazan authorities say. Israel says the operation is targeting Hamas leaders.” The emphasis in the headline – all that many people read – is on the suffering patients at the hospital. The statement that several patients have died as a result of the Israeli assault (rather than as a result of the Hamas occupation of the hospital to use it as a terrorist base) is given pride of place, and is only identified as a statement by “Gazan authorities” rather than adding that these authorities are Hamas. And then, in a sort of “on the one hand and on the other hand” approach, the Times adds that Israel says that Hamas leaders are being targeted in the operation, as though this is just a contention open to debate rather than an obvious fact.
I really don’t understand the concern over Michigan voters. The Muslims will vote for the Dem, no matter who it is. This saying they won’t vote for Biden is just bad theater.
Gideon Sa’ar has left the government, taking Yifat Shasha-Biton with him. Speed up the war? I doubt it. But we’ll see.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/387348
Once again, as I was with Obama in the White House, I am ashamed of my country.
Why are we still hosting and financing the UN? When I was a kid, there were bumper stickers that said “Get the US out of the UN.” I didn’t understand why then–but I sure do now. In addition to the Biden administration, the UK, France, Japan, Malta, Korea, and Switzerland should be ashamed of themselves. Russia and China must be quite pleased. And the remaining dwarfs (Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia) should be cut off from all US aid after an American patriot returns to the White House. Disgraceful.
You beat me to it Kate.
The IDF said the number of confirmed members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad … had risen to 500 out of over 800 suspects arrested since the raid began last week.
Suspects! That’s our limp-wristed ‘news’ media talking as if this were a police raid in the US, with eager non-prosecutors waiting to bail them out.
What is this “Biden administration” of which you speak? Obama I know, and Obama is in charge. “Biden” is merely the hollowed-out husk of a former human being who sold his soul–or what passed for it in his wretched existence–to grab the elusive ring of “The Presidency”, an object of his perverse desire since he was humiliated in his first and second attempts to gain it legitimately. Of note is the second failure, in which he withdrew in favor of Obama, who returned the favor by installing him as his V-P. Whereupon commenced the systematic disassembling of the human host and its replacement by what you see today.
Gideon saar is the one who worked with the lincoln duffusses
Reading gallant was the one that helped abu jihad arafats spymaster in 88
SHIREHOME,
Biden is falling in the polls, much of the Democrat base is pro-Hamas, and Biden is desperate to turn things around. He doesn’t have room to lose votes, even with the Democrat cheat machine.
So it goes
https://twitter.com/AlbertoMiguelF5/status/1772328624567246963
Miguel,
Do you mean Lincoln Project?
Don (6:01 pm), are you very sure you’re not seriously underestimating the will to absolute power and the visceral viciousness of “the Democrat cheat machine”??
“The resolution calls for an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and for the immediate release of all hostages.”
Historically, worldwide Islamist terrorist attacks go up during the month of Ramadan.
But this resolution presents Israel with an opportunity. Israel can state that it will be happy to implement an immediate ceasefire, as soon as Hamas complies with the resolution and releases all of the hostages.
Of course Hamas won’t do that but that provides Israel with the moral high ground. Israel can repeatedly respond to future demands that it immediately stop the attacks in Gaza by conditioning it upon Hamas complying with the UN resolution.
The latest attack happened during ramadan its their bag
Steve (retired/recovering lawyer):
That’s why I refer to it as the “Biden administration” rather than saying that Biden himself is doing this or that. I have said from the start that I think Obama is very influential in it, as are people from Obama’s administration.
I also think that although Biden mostly follows their lead, he is certainly part of it and not completely senile.
@ Geoffrey Britain: “But this resolution presents Israel with an opportunity [and] provides Israel with the moral high ground.”
It won’t matter in the least. To her enemies–the UN, the “Biden” administration, the intersectional US and international left, the Arab street, et al.–Israel cedes the moral high ground simply by existing.
Israel cedes the moral high ground simply by existing.
MollyG:
Exactly.
Once upon an innocent time I thought Israel’s ceding Gaza to the Palestinians free of charge with tons of nice infrastructure and greenhouses, would be the show of Good Faith that would prove to the world Israel’s Good Intentions.
The Palestinians destroyed the greenhouses and started digging tunnels. The UN and the rest of the world funded Gaza.
Shirehome,
Muslim voters are clannish. If their mosques and leaders suggest they abstain, they’ll do it. It’s Jewish voters who don’t have that kind of pressure. The administration made a calculated political move here – nothing more.
}}}
…in the international community known as the UN……in the Western Civilization destruction organization known as the UN…
You seem to have misspelled something there. Fixt it fer ya.
De Nada 😀
}}} Once upon an innocent time I thought Israel’s ceding Gaza to the Palestinians free of charge with tons of nice infrastructure and greenhouses, would be the show of Good Faith that would prove to the world Israel’s Good Intentions.
The Palestinians destroyed the greenhouses and started digging tunnels. The UN and the rest of the world funded Gaza.
I certainly agree, they bent over backwards to do this — it WAS as much the “two state solution” as anyone could ask for, and they freely set it up.
At that time, the Gaza Strip was the second most prosperous region in the entire ME that was not reliant utterly on oil money, with one of the highest per capita incomes for residents in all the ME.
Within about 2-3y of self-rule, the “Palestinians” had trashed it and turned it into a typical Islamic shithole (FACT is, Malaysia shows that Islam itself does not equate to “shithole”, but it damned sure is the only significant exception that doesn’t use lots of oil to prevent it)
Just realized that I haven’t seen any Open Source research and/or intelligence reports being reported by MSM in this Israel/Hamas war. BTW, this is not the same Open Source as mentioned with the Linux OSes.
I do use several Linux OSes as a ‘Companion OS’ to Win11 Pro, or as a recovery tool, as a hobby, and sometimes just to have an OS on a USB in my pocket.
Discovered the Open Source research and/or intelligence tools and/or media sites about the time Russia reinvaded Ukraine in 2022. I did some blog posts which proved the Russian propaganda machine as liars, but those posts are on a private blog site that I will eventually shut down—after transferring some of the posts to a newer self-hosted site.
Bellingcat is an example of an Open Source research and intelligence tools media site.
‘Exploiting Cadavers ’and ‘Faked IEDs’: Experts Debunk Staged Pre-War ‘Provocation’ in the Donbas is an example of how Open Source can be used to prove false propaganda.
Open Source quotes:
Another link: First Steps to Getting Started in Open Source Research
There are other such sites. I know Israel uses these tools to disprove certain Gaza & MSM propaganda, but am not sure if MSM uses it at all—and certainly Hamas hasn’t been using it.
Still pondering this thought, but Hamas not using it certainly suggests they don’t want facts, and probably the same suggestion for MSM.
Bellingcat has a few articles, for anyone interested in checking (see above link to site), but I haven’t checked them all out yet…
It’s time for Israel to crush Hamas.
I also think that although Biden mostly follows their lead, he is certainly part of it and not completely senile.
When Biden says something it has some sort of impact. Not the same as, say, Trump, because most realize Biden isn’t fully in charge. But still, Biden does have some level of influence.
My feeling is that no one is really in charge. There are multiple influences, some stronger than others. But no one fully dominate.
It’s a dangerous situation.
At that time, the Gaza Strip was the second most prosperous region in the entire ME
==
It wasn’t.
I have no idea where Gaza ranked precisely on the prosperity scale, but ObloodyHell is correct that under Israeli rule it was hardly an economic backwater by Middle East standards. That is made clear in historian Efraim Karsh’s wonderful essay in Commentary.
https://www.commentary.org/articles/efraim-karsh/what-occupation/
From that very long but very worthwhile essay:
During the 1970’s, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world—ahead of such “wonders” as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. Although GNP per capita grew somewhat more slowly, the rate was still high by international standards, with per-capita GNP expanding tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from $165 to $1,715 (compared with Jordan’s $1,050, Egypt’s $600, Turkey’s $1,630, and Tunisia’s $1,440). By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria’s, more than four times Yemen’s, and 10 percent higher than Jordan’s (one of the better-off Arab states). Only the oil-rich Gulf states and Lebanon were more affluent.