We’ve traced the drift of President Biden and his team away from Israel toward the side of Hamas in the current war. You might say they’re selling Israel out, but it’s not clear what they’re getting in return. You might say they don’t know what they’re doing, but one fears that they do. They seek the survival of Hamas as Israel seeks to complete its campaign to eliminate it as a force in Gaza. Thus the administration’s abstention on the Ramadan ceasefire resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council yesterday.
What has Ramadan got to do with it? Hinging the resolution on Ramadan adds an element of abasement and submission that ought to give one pause. The resolution (emphasis in original) “[d]emands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire, and also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages…”
As Richard Goldberg observes in the New York Post, the required ceasefire has been detached from the return of hostages. You can have one without the other.
But that’s okay. Hamas said it is willing “to engage in an immediate prisoner exchange process that leads to the release of prisoners on both sides.”
Goldberg also observes that the resolution made no mention of October 7 or Hamas, let alone note Hamas is a terrorist organization, as if the world woke up one day in a vacuum outraged to find Israel at war in Gaza and Palestinian civilians in distress.
The Hill reports that 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.”
You, Mr. Hitler, you have a good point and you, Mr. Churchill, you have a good point too. Can’t we all just get along? It’s a sad day for the United States.
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