As noted in the brief NEW YORK TIMES news item transmitted below, the government of the United States has today reconfirmed its subservience to Israeli domination and control, its ongoing support for the genocidal assault against the people of Gaza and its contempt for international law and most of mankind by vetoing yet another UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
This new veto, coupled with the recent votes by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to approve genocide-support tribute payments to Israel of $17 BILLION and $14 BILLION, respectively, and the looming U.S. presidential election between two moral monsters who are both well past their sell-by dates, is certain to increase the percentage of mankind which believes that the United States, once widely admired, has become a complete write-off, a terminally sick society, a menace to mankind and a plague on the planet.
The U.S. said the cease-fire resolution would jeopardize efforts to broker a hostage-release deal.
Humanitarian agencies, U.N. officials and other diplomats have argued that without a cease-fire, humanitarian aid at the scale that Gaza needs is not possible.
The United States said that the resolution would jeopardize Washington’s ongoing negotiation efforts with Qatar and Egypt to broker a deal that would release hostages from Gaza in exchange for a temporary humanitarian cease-fire. Those negotiations have stumbled, with neither Israel nor Hamas reaching a consensus on the terms for a deal.
“Any action the council takes right now should help not hinder these sensitive and ongoing negotiations,” said Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “Demanding an immediate unconditional cease-fire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring endurable peace.”
Thirteen council members voted in favor. Britain abstained.
Algeria’s ambassador to the U.N., Amar Bendjama, sharply criticized the United States, telling the council that voting against the resolution “implies an endorsement of the brutal violence and collective punishment inflected upon” the Palestinians. He said “silence is not a viable option, now is the time for action and the time for truth.”
The United States has drafted a rival resolution, which is still in early stages of negotiations, that calls for a temporary humanitarian cease-fire as soon as practical, and the release of hostages. It also states that Israel’s army must not carry out an offensive in Rafah under the current conditions there. More than a million Palestinians have sought refuge in Rafah, many of them displaced multiple times.
But diplomats at the United Nations have grown frustrated with the United States, saying it has prioritized its own diplomatic negotiations at the expense of the wider Council’s efforts, undermining the ability of the U.N. body to do its job. In October, the United States vetoed a humanitarian resolution, put forth by Brazil, to deliver aid to Gaza at a time when Israel had placed the strip under a strict blockade of essential aid, saying it could undermine President Biden’s efforts with the government of Israel to win aid delivery to Gaza.
Russia and China condemned the U.S.’s veto. “It is not that the Security Council does not have an overwhelming consensus, but rather it is the exercise of the veto by the United States that has stifled the Council consensus,” said China’s ambassador, Zhang Jun, adding that while the U.S. vetoed the cease-fire, civilians were getting killed and suffering.