In a 14-0 vote with the U.S. abstaining, the U.N. Security Council finally passed a resolution today calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and unfettered access to it for humanitarian aid.
The resolution calls for the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages taken captive by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Ramadan is set to end in just over two weeks, on April 9, so if any cease-fire does manifest from the vote it may only be short-lived. Monday's vote followed several failed attempts by the Security Council at brokering a cease-fire resolution — including one as recently as three days ago.
Israel is furious that the U.S. did not veto as it has done in previous attempts to pass a resolution with similar wording.
The US decision to abstain on the vote prompted Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel a scheduled trip to the US by two of his top advisers, two Israeli officials said.
The US had previously vetoed similar resolutions calling for a ceasefire. Its position evolved last week when on Friday, it put forward a ceasefire resolution tied tied to the release of hostages. That resolution fell when it was vetoed by Russia and China. The US abstention on Monday's vote allowed the latest resolution to pass, when the other 14 members of the 15-strong council voted yes.
Even given slanted questions such as "Does Israel have a valid reason to go to war," Netanyahu's invasion of Gaza is not popular among Americans, Biden's support for it badly hurt his standing among supporters he desperately need to turn out this fall, and elite opinion has recently shifted against it too. And now they've even lost Trump.
In an interview with Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, the former president said he had watched images of bombs being dropped on residential buildings in Gaza every night, calling it a "big mistake".
"You have to finish up your war … You gotta get it done. And I am sure you will do that. And we gotta get to peace, we can't have this going on. And I will say, Israel has to be very careful, because you're losing a lot of the world, you're losing a lot of support," he told the newspaper.
Behind the talk, though, the U.S. is still shoveling weapons into Israel like a loony tunes engineer shoveing coal into a cartoon train's overpressurized boiler.
