UN Security Council Resolution on Gaza War Passes Without Condemning Hamas

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on November 15th that calls for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors” for “a sufficient number of days” to allow full, rapid, safe, and unhindered access for UN agencies and partners throughout Gaza. The resolution also calls for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups, especially children, as well as ensuring immediate humanitarian access.” After four unsuccessful attempts to pass any resolution regarding the Gaza war since Hamas’ brutal massacres of Israeli civilians on October 7^th, the Security Council managed to do so this time. The resolution was adopted by a vote of twelve members in favor. No member state voted against the resolution. Three member states abstained (Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States).

Resolution is fundamentally flawed in at least three respects

Although the resolution is fundamentally flawed in at least three respects, the Biden administration decided to abstain rather than veto the resolution as it should have done. Moral clarity was sacrificed at the altar of the globalist impulse to please the so-called “international community.”

First, the resolution inexcusably fails to condemn Hamas’ genocidal attack on October 7th.

Second, the resolution contains no set time limit on the “pauses,” leaving it up to the United Nations to determine what constitutes “a sufficient number of days” to achieve full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access throughout Gaza. Hamas will undoubtedly exploit extended “pauses” of indeterminate length by sabotaging humanitarian access as it has done before and blaming Israel, while using the “pauses” to regroup and rearm. This is the same terrorist organization that thinks nothing of massacring Israeli civilians, using Gazan civilians as human shields, stealing humanitarian supplies, and storing weapons in hospitals in violation of international humanitarian law and the rules of war.

Third, while calling for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas and “other groups,” the resolution does not demand the release of all hostages as a precondition for any Gaza-wide “pause” to take effect. Note too that the resolution refers to “Hamas and other groups” without using the word that accurately describes who these groups are – “terrorists.”

Biden administration succumbed to the UN’s customary anti-Israel bias and double standard

Israel’s Deputy Permanent Representative, Brett Jonathan Miller, said in his remarks to the Security Council that the resolution was “detached from the reality on the ground” and “falls on deaf ears when it comes to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.” Noting that Hamas has threatened to repeat the October 7^th atrocities again and again if given a chance, Mr. Miller declared that the Hamas terrorists “have shown the world that the genocidal rhetoric is not hyperbole, but an oath to annihilate Israel by any means.”

America’s UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council that she was “horrified that a few members of this Council still cannot bring themselves to condemn the barbaric terrorist attack that Hamas carried out against Israel on October 7th.”

“What is stopping them from unequivocally condemning the actions of a terrorist organization that is determined to kill Jews and that gunned down civilians, burned families alive, and executed children?” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield asked the Security Council. “A group that killed and took hostages including children from over a dozen countries, including the United States. There is no excuse for failing to condemn these acts of terror.”

Nice words. But in the end, by not vetoing this fundamentally flawed resolution that omitted such a condemnation of Hamas’ genocidal actions, the Biden administration succumbed to the UN’s customary anti-Israel bias and double standard.

Support Canada Free Press

VIEW Comments