The following are excerpts from reports by Al Jazeera and Insider:
U.S. Strikes Down UN Vote That Condemns Hamas And Extends Olive Branch Of Peace (Al Jazeera)
The United States has vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel while calling for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza.
The US was the sole vote against the resolution on Wednesday, with 12 members voting in favour and Russia and the United Kingdom abstaining.
We are on the ground doing the hard work of diplomacy. We believe we need to let that diplomacy play out.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after the vote.
The Brazil-drafted text would have condemned violence against all civilians, but the US said that it did not do enough to underscore Israel’s right to self-defence. The US has typically exercised its Security Council veto to shield Israel from critical resolutions.
[…]The overwhelming majority of the council, 12 countries, supported that resolution and expressed disappointment after days of negotiations and a humanitarian situation that was rapidly escalating, that the council wasn’t able to come together and offer this view, this call for calm, this call for access for humanitarians.
Al Jazeera correspondent Kristen Saloomey reported from UN headquarters in New York City.
Speaking before the council, UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland said that the world was “at the brink of a deep and dangerous abyss that could change the trajectory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if not of the Middle East as a whole”.
[…]But Western countries, and especially Israel’s most firm ally, the US, have been accused of employing a double standard when it comes to potential Israeli violations of international law.
While the US has said that Israel should take steps to avoid killing Palestinian civilians, it has offered firm support and little direct criticism as Israeli air raids on Gaza level entire neighbourhoods, and as an Israeli siege cuts off access to water, food, electricity, and fuel for the strip’s 2.3 million inhabitants.
Palestinian authorities have said that more than 3,400 people have been killed and more than 12,000 others wounded in the Israeli assault on Gaza.
Hamas’ own actions have brought this on – this severe humanitarian crisis.
Said Thomas-Greenfield.
Russia, which drafted a failed resolution calling for a ceasefire earlier this week, said the US veto showed that US rhetoric about international law and human rights was self-serving, following months of criticism over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
We have just been witnesses once again of hypocrisy and the double standards of our American colleagues.
Said Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia.
Biden $100 Million In Humanitarian Aid To Palestinians (Insider)
With the war between Israel and Hamas approaching its two-week mark, President Joe Biden announced humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians harmed in the conflict.
On Wednesday, Biden arrived in Israel following militant group Hamas’ attack on southern towns in Israel last week. Since then, thousands of Israeli and Palestinian civilians have died as a result of the war, and as it prepared to escalate attacks on Hamas, Israel ordered the evacuation of over one million Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
The evacuation order prompted concerns from the United Nations, which said Israel was breaching international law by forcing civilians to leave through a dangerous warzone without access to food, water, or electricity. Some Democratic lawmakers called for Biden to get emergency aid to those civilians, and the president confirmed he would be doing so during his Wednesday remarks.
Today I’m also announcing $100 million in new US funding for humanitarian assistance in both Gaza and the West Bank. This money will support more than 1 million displaced in conflict affected Palestinians, including emergency needs in Gaza.
Biden said
You are a Jewish state, but you’re also a democracy. Like the United States, you don’t live by the rules of terrorist. You live by the rule of law. What sets us apart from terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of every human life, Israeli, Palestinian, Arab, Jew, Muslim, Christian, everyone.
He added.
Biden has also called for Egypt to open its border to allow Palestinian civilians to leave the warzone. His administration is also expected to ask Congress for $100 billion in supplemental funding for Israel and Ukraine — two wars Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said the US can “certainly” afford to support.
However, chaos in the House is stalling the prospects of passing an aid package, given House lawmakers have been unable to select a new speaker of the house after they ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate is ready to act first to pass a funding package, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed support for funding that tied Ukraine and Israel together.
This is all interconnected. You’ve got the North Koreans, the Iranians, the Russians and the Chinese, sort of, on the same side against the democratic world, so there is a connection between all of this.
McConnell said.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Nebenzia’s comment succinctly summarizes the never-ending deceitful rhetoric of the U.S.
An hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbour: but through knowledge shall the just be delivered.
Proverbs 11:9
This is the typical military industrial complex at work, playing devil’s advocate by trying to play both sides, by trying to police the world and preaching American exceptionalism to the world, and terrorizing it by bringing “freedom and democracy” to nations who don’t fall in line.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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US is burning the candle at both ends, Joe pays to strike Gaza, pays Israel to strike back and then pays all of them in aid for their trouble and time. I’d bet he is paying Egypt; under the table to open borders for the displaced people; JUST SAYING