After five and a half months of blockage, the United Nations (UN) Security Council finally adopted a resolution calling for a “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, Monday March 25.
This text only applies to the month of Ramadan, which has already started two weeks ago. Its translation on the ground remains very uncertain, even if Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, estimated that it would be “unforgivable” to ignore it. This resolution nonetheless represents the first concrete gesture by the Biden administration to regain some critical distance from the Israeli military operation. More than 32,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza.
The vote on this resolution, presented by the ten non-permanent members of the Security Council and supported by four permanent members, was possible thanks to the abstention of the United States. This country did not join the others due to the lack of an explicit condemnation of Hamas. But the result is similar: Israel is exposed and alone. The text removes one of the principles to which Washington clung, that of a conditionality between the release of the 130 hostages remaining in the hands of the Palestinian movement and a temporary ceasefire, while calling for both of its wishes.
This unprecedented step, the significance of which the White House has strived to downplay, immediately caused an open crisis between Israel and its only major supporter in the war. Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to cancel the trip to Washington of his close collaborators, the Minister for Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, and the National Security Advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi. They had only a political road map, consisting of politely listening to the American ally about alternatives to a large-scale ground operation in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
“The United States abandoned its policy at the UN today, Mr. Netanyahu’s office reacted on Monday in a press release. (…) The resolution gives Hamas hope that international pressure will force Israel to agree to a ceasefire without releasing our hostages, thereby undermining both the war effort and the effort to free the hostages. » Without using the lexicon of betrayal, the Prime Minister suggested that his country was being abandoned. A way of positioning itself as the only bulwark against American pressure.
Washington’s diplomatic inconsistencies
For his part, in Washington, the spokesperson for the National Security Council, John Kirby, believed that the Israeli leader was seeking “to create the impression of divergence when this is not necessary”. The advisor insisted on the character ” non-binding ” of the resolution, which will not “no impact on Israel and [sa] ability to fight Hamas.
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