Clio the cat, ? July 1997 - 1 May 2016
This was an embarrassing oversight
Ricky
Mar 25, 2024
There must be a blizzard in Hell today because the United Nations Security Council has managed to pass a ceasefire resolution for Gaza without a veto from the US. (I think the US representative forgot to put her hand up.) This is clearly a worrying time for everyone who considers Israel to be above international law so please remember to show sensitivity when discussing IDF war criminals.
The UN resolution demands an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages captured by Hamas, but importantly, the demand for the release of hostages is separate from the demand for a ceasefire. In other words, no one can use the hostages as an excuse to continue the slaughter of civilians.
Fourteen countries voted in favour of the ceasefire because they think genocide is bad, and zero voted against it, but the US abstained because it’s still unsure if genocide is bad. I think it all boils down to how bad the polls are looking for Biden, so if you stop agreeing to vote for the lesser of two evils, he might feel pressured into doing the right thing. You see how this works?
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The US had actually rejected an earlier version of the UN resolution because it contained the words “permanent ceasefire”. Imagine your concern about a ceasefire being that it might last too long. Presumably, the US would prefer the bloodshed to continue for as long as possible, even though it has been pretending it wants the opposite. Politics can be quite a tricky balancing act.
Obviously, a ceasefire could have happened over five months ago, but the US was concerned that not enough children had been blown to pieces in revenge for October 7th and the Gaza population looked a little too well fed for their liking.
Last week, a food security assessment from the UN warned that 1.1 million people in Gaza were struggling with catastrophic hunger. To address the situation, Israel decided to cut off all aid to northern Gaza where food insecurity is the worst, basically sentencing everyone there to death. They have refused to give a reason because they know that whatever lie they come up with will be debunked in three days and they can’t be arsed anymore.
Riham Jafari of ActionAid Palestine said of the decision:
“We are utterly horrified and outraged to see Israel pull the plug on the most vital lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza on the brink of famine, right now. With severe hunger claiming children’s lives and severely malnourished women giving birth to stillborn babies, Israel’s decision to cease working with UNRWA is nothing short of a death sentence for those living through immense hunger and suffering.”
Even the UK foreign secretary was forced to admit “frustration” at Israel’s refusal to let aid into Gaza, after ministers had previously accused MPs who questioned this of being “insensitive” towards genocidaires. It’s unclear whether the UK will stop sending the weapons to Israel that are preventing a ceasefire. All I’m saying is don’t hold your breath…
Netanyahu was upset the ceasefire resolution did not link the ceasefire to the release of hostages, but he did not indicate he would release his hostages in exchange - and he has many more hostages than Hamas. I think this is called a massive double standard.
To calm tensions with Israel, Anthony Blinken pretended the resolution is “consistent with our principled position that any ceasefire text must be paired with text on the release of the hostages”.
The US is even pretending the resolution they forgot to veto is not legally binding, but according to someone on Twitter, that’s incorrect, not that I would know.
I do know that Netanyahu is furious with Biden and cancelled a trip to Washington when the US president cancelled the Rafah invasion party to save his re-election chances. You see what can be achieved when you don’t automatically guarantee war criminals your vote? Even insignificant nobodies have more leverage than they realise!
A deranged lunatic called Ben Gvir went on an impressive rant, telling everyone who wanted a ceasefire they are anti-Semites now. He said:
“The Security Council resolution proves that the United Nations is anti-Semitic and its Secretary-General is anti-Semitic and encourages Hamas.”
I think we can extrapolate this means almost the entire global population are anti-Semites, given they support the ceasefire resolution. Welcome to the smeared club, everyone! You’ll like it here. We have cookies… and principles!
All that remains to be seen now is will Israel obey the UN resolution and what consequences will there be for failure to comply? Will the US and UK finally cut off arms sales? Will they finally take tougher action on Netanyahu? Will he get the Saddam treatment?
I seem to remember that when Iraq broke a UN resolution, we considered this an act of war! Does that logic now apply to Israel or will it simply be allowed to break UN resolutions?
I’m guessing the answer is yes, Israel will be allowed to break UN resolutions, given the US has decided it will only restore funding to UNRWA if Palestine does not support investigations into Israeli war crimes. In other words, the US is demanding war criminals be above the law, otherwise it will starve people to death again. I’m pretty sure that would be collective punishment, which would be another war crime. They just can’t help themselves, can they?
The last working-class hero in England.
Kira the cat, ? ? 2010 - 3 August 2018
Jasper the Ruffian cat ? ? ? - 4 November 2021
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