The United States Wednesday vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have called for a humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza as well as for Israel to rescind its order to 1.1 million Gazans to leave their homes and move to the south of their enclave.
The resolution drafted by Brazil was defeated 12 to 1 with two abstentions (by Britain and Russia). As a veto-wielding permanent member, the U.S. negative vote killed the measure. The resolution also condemned “the terrorist attacks by Hamas” and called for the immediate release of all hostages. U.S. President Joe Biden, who is in Israel, said Wednesday Israel had agreed to allow aid into the Gaza Strip and that the U.S. would give $100 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank.
The U.S. representative, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, explained why the U.S. vetoed the chance for a ceasefire:
“Thank you, Mr. President.
Colleagues, as we meet, President Biden is in the region. His trip is a clear demonstration of the fact that the United States is actively engaging at the highest levels: to secure the release of hostages; to prevent the conflict from spreading; to stress the need to protect civilian lives; to address the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza; and to demonstrate to the Israeli people that the United States stands with them in their time of sorrow and need.
We are on the ground, doing the hard work of diplomacy. And while we recognize Brazil’s desire to move this text forward, we believe we need to let that diplomacy play out, especially when Secretary-General Guterres, President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and regional actors are engaged in intensive dialogue on the very issues we are deliberating on today.
Yes, resolutions are important. And yes, this Council must speak out. But the actions we take must be informed by the facts on the ground and support direct diplomacy efforts that can save lives. The Council needs to get this right.
Colleagues, the United States is disappointed this resolution made no mention of Israel’s right of self-defense. Like every nation in the world, Israel has the inherent right of self-defense, as reflected in Article 51 of the UN Charter. Following previous terrorist attacks by groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS, this Council reaffirmed that right. This text should have done the same.
Though we could not support this resolution, going forward we will continue to work closely with all Council members on this pressing issue. Just as we will continue to reiterate the need to protect civilians including members of the media, humanitarian workers, and UN officials.
And when I talk about the protection of civilians, I mean all civilians. The United States is horrified and saddened by yesterday’s explosion at the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. We mourn this tragic, tragic loss of life.
On the humanitarian front, we are working with Israel, its neighbors, the United Nations, and other partners to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is critical that food, medicine, water, and fuel begin flowing into Gaza as soon as possible. Families, the elderly, and children are in dire need.
Let’s be clear: Hamas’ own actions have brought this on – this severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. And Hamas has caused so much needless suffering, death, and destruction. Every Member State should condemn Hamas’ terrorism and cruelty. And every Member State should call on Hamas to cease its endless barrage of rockets against Israel. This is not complicated. It’s not controversial. This is the bare minimum.
Colleagues, at this difficult moment, let us all call for the protection of civilians and unequivocally condemn Hamas. Let us all affirm Israel’s right of self-defense and support the urgent diplomatic efforts underway. Let us stand with the UN and other partners as they work to alleviate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians in Gaza. And let us all support equal measures of justice and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Thank you, Mr. President.”
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaking at U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza war. (UN TV/YouTube)
As an American citizen, it is a horrible feeling to be on the wrong side of history.
The worst part of all this is there sits a black woman covering for this european madness. The US is such an expert at false representation.
Leave the colour of skin out of this.
Not possible, Vera. Black women are being used by the government and every corporation in the United States to be the public face of their nefariousness. This is not an accident. Just take a look at our latest supreme court justice [sic], the one who can’t define what a woman is.
This way, white upper-class males are hidden and the public sees women and black people as the faces of government, Pepsico, General Dynamics, Boeing, Bayer / Monsanto, etc, etc, etc. We must always keep in mind that plenty of people who are “oppressed” are willing to serve the interests of their OWNERS.
Well, no, I wouldn’t leave the skin color our of this.
As a black woman she ought to remember how er ancestors were treated. And she ought to know how dark skinned people are being treated by the hegemon right now.
It’s not a coincidence that all the “rich” countries are white and the “poor” countries are non-white.
I am soooooo proud of my country. Not. The US claims that Hamas brought this on themselves. Would not Israel bring this sort of thing on themselves when they ethnically cleanse Arab villages and Palestinian enclaves? Oops sorry. Forgot who protects Israel from the consequences of their own actions and besides these are powerless people without billions of dollars worth of weapons. One thing this does is expose the mockery that “The West” makes of the concept of freedom of speech.
Excuse my ‘French’ but my blood is boiling: f***ing country!!! A Spanish saying goes…mal rayo los parta. Lightening should split them.
My blood is boiling, too. But also, my heart is bleeding. My bfs whole family is in Gaza. We haven’t heard from them recently. They are living close by to that hospital…
I recommend 2 Telegram channels: “Eye on Gaza” and “GAZA NOW IN ENGLISH”.
There you can see with your own eyes what the UiSrael is doing in Gaza.
To work in the US State Department you must be a soulless drone, and empty shell who simply takes orders no matter how horrendous they are.
This is disgusting, and that woman and those behind her will go down in history as contemptible creatures. I cannot understand fully why the bond between Israel and the US gov is so unbreakable, I imagine it’s all about money, but is that all? Because that never stopped the US from turning on an ally in the past, when it thought it was in their best interest to do so. Right now the perpetuation of this insanity does not suit US interests in any way aside from money. Politically, economically, visually, mentally, it does no one any good. So wtf???
Read Whitney Webb’s One Nation Under Blackmail and Jonathan Marshall’s Dark Quadrant. Then you will understand why the “bond” is so unbreakable, why there are more than 20 states requiring loyalty oaths to Israel, why those such as Jeffrey Epstein — serving the surveillance apparatus of both Israel and the U.S. — were so important until the advent of digital surveillance.
Because Israel is the U.S. watchdog in the Middle East.
On the invocation of Article 51 to claim an Israeli right of self-defense, the International Court of Justice already spoke to this in its opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Advisory Opinion, International Court of Justice (9 July 2004). hxxps://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/131/131-20040709-ADV-01-00-EN.pdf
“139. Under the tcrms of Article 51 of the Charter of the United
Nations:
‘Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.’
“Article 51 of the Charter thus recognizes the existence of an inherent right of self-defence in the case of armed attack by one State against another State. However, Israel does not claim that the attacks against it are imputable to a foreign State.
“The Court also notes that Israel exercises control in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that, as Israel itself states, the threat which it regards as justifying the construction of the wall originates within, and not outside, that territory. The situation is thus different from that contemplated by Securi1y Council resolutions 1368 (2001) and 1373 (200 l), and therefore lsrael could not in any event invoke those resolutions in support of its claim to be exercising a right of self-defence.
“Consequently, the Court concludes that Article 51 of the Charter has no relevance in this case.”
So is that what we mean by “inclusiveness” these days, that a black woman can now have the privilege of joining in the racist activities of her white colleagues? A black woman can now call for the absolute destruction of innocent civilians and children, murdered simply because of where and how they were born. I guess it’s okay because Palestinians are not black and they’re not white either. Would confederate slave holders even have used that logic about the right to self-defense to slaughter children? Maybe? But it seems she may have even surpassed her racist predecessors.
Freaks me out too. Same with that WH spokeswoman. Creepily coopted like Uncle Tom Jim Clyburn who swung the primaries for the aged racist Grifter Biden just as he was getting g handed his a..se by Sanders.
Psyops. Plain and simple.
I always liked the Chomsky/Herman concept of ‘filters’, and you see it in-play here and with virtually all of these token appointments of non-white, non-male individuals implying that they will somehow be more compassionate and humane. And I don’t doubt that there are individuals like that among these groups, but they’re ‘filtered-out’ long before they get near positions of power or influence. In today’s world, only the malleable, corruptible or amoral individuals rise to these higher positions.
I don’t think these women are hired because they will “somehow be more compassionate and humane.” It’s just the latest face for the same old upper-class, mostly men, mostly whites who rule us. They’ll hide behind anyone’s skirts and get the general public to think that the perpetrators of evil are women and people of color.
Good point. And it absolutely is what we mean by “inclusiveness” these days. We are all commodities waiting to be spent upon the needs of Empire. Every category of thought is now topsy-turvy, simply awaiting classification by those who dictate what will be our next “reality.” It has now been revealed that Orwell didn’t recognize the worth of women, so therefore, 1984 is not a textbook announcing what is now happening across western civilization, but the disposable ruminations of a socialist. Thoreau didn’t recognize Capitalism as the end object of all our lives, even claiming that “the majority of men lead lives of quiet desperation” – well, that thought simply won’t be allowed in a commodified environment. That’s forever outside the framework of our now, “adjustable” reality. There are no taboos in a commodified culture. There is only the next requirement of continued collusion in solidifying the cult of money and power against the welfare of the populace. And is it any wonder that academia is the wet edge of proposing this shifting “reality?” I mean, money and influence requires it, so a thousand years of slowly jettisoning the Dark Ages is now but a blue light special at the end of an aisle called, “take it or leave it.’
You got it! This is what is meant by what I call DIE — diversity, inclusion, equality — as I refuse to rearrange the initials to their comforting lie (DEI). They are just the latest trick of our rulers while they pursue the same old racist and sexist agendas that have benefited them for centuries. What one learns from the spectacle of this horrible woman is that people will do anything for money and status when they are bereft of ethics and decency.
I’m ashamed of my country.
Why don’t the UN members call out the fact that the US ALWAYS vetos any resolution aimed at Israel. Israel can do no wrong, ever. Why do they bother going through the charade of a vote that has some chance of passing, when we all know its goose is cooked before the first reading. If I was an ambassador for one of the countries who are sick of the US’s predictable response, I would instead put up a resolution that Tyrants, cheats and liars be removed from the chambers. And name the perpetrators (US Israel, and normally UK also). THe UN has to grow a backbone!
I also heard her claim that the US has definitive proof that Israel was not responsible for the bombing the hospital. Must have been in another discussion. As Jonathan Cook wrote, “If Hamas or Islamic Jihad could blow up a building, killing hundreds, as happened last night, you would hear about it happening in Tel Aviv or Ashkelon too. You don’t because they can’t.”
Given that Ukraine is a proxy war, we might see Israel as something of a proxy occupation.
By this I do not mean to suggest that the Israeli government is not on board with the genocide thing, nor that it has not been mostly running its own show for a long time, only that the nation bears this relation to central empire.
This sort of fracas seems to be a regular feature of empire. Empire involves over-extension because it involves decisions that are made remotely, both geographically and spiritually from those who implement and those who receive them. Empire is therefore permanently in a sort of grand intrinsic error, always autocorrecting badly, oversteering like a kid new to a bike, and deputizing henchpersons as enforcers.
Agree with all comments above. Israel and the US are the only culprits here. Don’t think I’d rely on Guterras, Biden and Blinken to collectively come up with anything fair. As I said to Chris Hedges lately,
“What are the Palestinians to do when the goal of the Jews of Israel from the Nakba forward was to eliminate the Palestinians from their own land until there were no people there but the Jews? Just lie down and die from minimum calories, filthy water, no electricity, no medical care, no escape from their prison, no help in the courts, no keeping their homes, no keeping their children safe, seeing their livestock stolen, their orchards uprooted, their crops poisoned, their family members put in prison for no cause, being brutalized daily, and no freedom to escape? Were they never to fight back? [Remember Hamas was democraticslly elected to lead Gaza. That group made sure Gazans’ children has food, medical care, etc. as the Israelis tried to starve them to death.]
If you’ve been amidst the Jews in Israel, you can’t miss the all pervasive arrogance that is palpable. Gideon Levy says the Jews are three things: 1) God’s chosen therefore superior to all others, 2) the eternal victims, 3) have the right to kill off the inferior Palestinians who are “cockroaches” to be stamped out. When you go to the West Bank and Gaza, that arrogance is missing and replaced by warmth and welcome. So,…… what would you suggest the Palestinians do instead of fight? Nothing? You do know Palestinians were over 90% and Jews about 5% in 1948 when Palestine was given away by Britain. Then the world watched while over 700,000 were murdered by the Jews. Again, if Palestinian, what would you do? I would finally just take up arms, too, and fight back.” BYW, If people think the IDF was taken by surprise by Hamas coming through the extremely monitored “fence,” think again. The Commander of the fence said not even a fox could get through. They LET it happen to have an opportunity to finally kill off the rest of the Gazans, their plan for many decades. Israeli Jews won’t be happy until they have their goal of “Greater Israel,” with NO Palestinians, which even Ben Gurion and Moshe Dayan said openly. They also said there naturally would be resistance from people who live there, but the goal would be reached eventually. Let’s hope not.
Of course you are correct, but as MK Bhadrakumar implies in this issue of CN, the world is no longer the property of the USA. Even Iran, threatened by Netanyahu for 30 years, is not awaiting destruction by Israel, and Netanyahu is a disgrace to the people he claims to lead and obviously many of them agree. If the USA did not shower Israel with money, weapons, UN support for its own domestic reasons, Israel could not possible continue this behaviour. Does this really help Israel, a pariah in its region and becoming more so as the other nations of the world wake up and feel empowered? They are not trying to match Israel/ US/ … violence but trying (as in China’s remarkable success with Iran/ Saudi cooperation) to have peace, which is a wicked concept for the USA or Israel.
I am deeply disgusted by my Country’s abominable policies and conduct. I am ashamed to even acknowledge that I am a citizen of the U.S.
You’re not alone. Many of us are feeling the same, because this IS abominable and shameful. They can no longer spin this, though they will still try, but we all must do whatever we can to counter this fear-mongering, perpetual-warfare mentality. Demonizing all those who call for a ceasefire and peace is not going to play out very well, no matter what.
I am as well, Jim. As of now, I am nearly desperately trying to obtain an Irish passport. But I would be content to live in China as well.
It’s hard to get into China.
I’ve learned lots of Chinese. And I have a hard time finding a job there as a software developer.
I like the Chinese though. They have lots of political and geopolitical knowledge, but people are not very caring about politics, everybody goes about their business, because the politics takes care of things well – it’s how it should be.
I think the “hard work of diplomacy” should have begun lights years ago in previous administrations. The administration is full of clowns. And BTW is anyone foolish enough to believe anything the USA says anymore. If they do, it is at their own peril.
“this resolution made no mention of Israel’s right of self-defense.”
It also made no mention of Palestinians legal right to resist an occupying power.
As President Putin has said, the US is an Empire of Lies.
I’m sure Jams, one of the countries’ representative speakers mentioned this fact and cited an international or UN law, but i can’t remember which one. I think it was Pakistan. But many of them too stated the need for Israel to revert to 1967 borders. But who will re-build Gaza?
You are correct. The Pakistani delegate stressed this right (which I believe is well known). He did not cite any particular statute or document.
Thanks Rafael and for the correction. I thought he mentioned a statute. Sadly though, i don’t think this was mentioned by anyone else.
It’s so unseemly and shameful the way the white neoliberal Zionist warpigs hide behind women and minorities as their bought handmaidens: Thomas-Greenfield, Powers (what a nauseating pyschopath she is), Susan Rice, and a few more I’m forgetting at the moment.
Apparently ID gonadal politics trumps everything. Who cares if the majority of the murdered victims of the Zio-militarist war scum are brown women and brown children, as long as those missiles have a rainbow flag on them, all’s well!
Two excellent comments Thanks. I would add it’s sickening to chastise Hamas for doing the same thing as Israel (but without condemnation) for 75 years. No one in the MSM ever says the Palestinians have the right to defend themselves. If Biden thinks giving Gazans help can get to them if it goes through Israeli hands, he’s crazier than ever.
The Arab nations really stuck it to the Israelis there. About time.
Disgusting.
Our (I’m a U.S. citizen) is bought and paid for by the Jewish supremacist Zionists. And no one can say this on mainstream TV or they’ll be branded an irrational kook or a raving anti-Semite.
This smearing must stop and we must be able to call a spade a spade!
For further reading:
They Dare to Speak Out by Paul Findley
Power of Israel in the U.S. by James Petras
Host and the Parasite by Greg Felton
Against our Better Judgement by Alison Weir
Israel Lobby by Mearsheimer and Walt
edit: Our (I’m a U.S. citizen) federal government is bought and paid for…
Totally with you, Drew, but I got my info from Whitney Webb and now Jonathan Marshall. All the books you mention sound interesting, but maybe Petras in particular!
“Let’s be clear: Hamas’ own actions have brought this on – this severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
So, let’s be clear: being bombed, starved and thirsted to death is a “severe humanitarian crisis?” I’d say the “rules-based order” is missing a conscience altogether, having replaced it with bureaucratic doublespeak. Of course, absolute hegemony over the earth often requires a fluid stupidity as a weapon of mass destruction. It’s hard to believe that someone feels genuine emotion over the bombing of a hospital when in their next breath they’re turning the entire population into a hospital waiting to be bombed. And if Biden is only in Israel for political reasons, what does it say about him and the Democratic Party as well?
Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield undoubtedly would have supported the slaveholders over John Brown. Isn’t it shameful what women and people of color are willing to do to toady to a system that oppresses them?
BINGO!
The Congressional Black Caucus are a profound, surreal joke. Never-ending hypocrisy. Role models for sociopathy.
Barbara Lee will likely replace Dianne Feinstein and nothing will change.
She is not in any way oppressed, however.
Though she may disagree.
Yeah, I don’t really think these women are oppressed, but their sisters and brothers are, and they don’t give a shit. I couldn’t believe it when some peacenik called me from California, and when I said I don’t petition Congress because they’re a bunch of gangsters, he said, “But what about Barbara Lee? And Bernie Sanders?” What century is this dude living in?!?!?
Are you now singling out women in general, or is it only African-American women and people of color, in general, who deserve public opprobrium?
If you are, this is kinda bigoted, don’t you think. Or perhaps you see the present time as opportune for promoting special interests groups?
What of ‘white’ Israeli women short on melanin, who should know better; whose European ancestors have long been oppressed, ethnically cleansed, and exterminated like rats?
Yet these self-same Israeli women, in general, are condoning what their country-folk are attempting to do to the Palestinians.
The Jews too, in the concentration camps of WWII had ‘Kapos’ such as Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield; a trustee who carries out the will of the Hegemon
On the worlds largest theater stage, performing for the worlds most inclusive audience, how much more convincing can the consummate lead actors performance be, for accurately portraying the despicable, duplicitous US foreign policy agenda, than that of puppet on a string, center stage star performer, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield?
Vote AGAINST a cease fire? Appalling.
Vote AGAINST continued slaughter of Palestinians by a country crammed to the gills with American made sophisticated weaponry and USA warships assembled nearby …with more USA’s citizens tax dollars waiting to be lavished to restock Israel’s bank accounts? Indeed, appalling. And, chilling. And the USA “humanitarian aid” – without pressure for ceasefire – but a piddle in the bucket, a pretense of compassion, almost an insult when the substantive response would be significant pressure on Israel to stop their ethnic cleansing operation – or else, consequences. Gaza is geographically smaller than that of Newark but with twice (or was twice) the population of Newark, NJ.
It wasn’t even a ceasefire that Brazil proposed. It was a humanitarian pause, or several. Russia proposed a ceasefire, which went down for more or less the same reason.