AMP Report – March 23, 2024
Russia and China veto ambigious Gaza cease-fire resolution by US
Russia and China Friday vetoed a U.S. resolution in the UN Security Council that called for, but not demanding a ceasefire in Gaza war.
According to Associated Press a key issue was the unusual language that said the Security Council "determines the imperative of an immediate and sustained cease-fire.” The phrasing was not a straightforward "demand” or "call” to halt hostilities.
The US draft resolution tied the ceasefire to the ongoing talks to secure a truce deal that would see the release of Israeli captives in Gaza.
“It says it’s important that there is a ceasefire; it doesn’t seem to be demanding one,” Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent James Bays, who had obtained a copy of the draft resolution, said earlier this week. “And it’s also linking this ceasefire directly with the release of the remaining captives being held by Hamas and other groups in Gaza.”
Before the vote, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow supports an immediate cease-fire, but he criticized the diluted language, which he called philosophical wording that does not belong in a U.N. resolution.
He accused U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of "deliberately misleading the international community.”
"This was some kind of an empty rhetorical exercise,” Nebenzia said. "The American product is exceedingly politicized, the sole purpose of which is to help to play to the voters, to throw them a bone in the form of some kind of a mention of a cease-fire in Gaza ... and to ensure the impunity of Israel, whose crimes in the draft are not even assessed.”
China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, said the U.S. proposal set preconditions and fell far short of expectations of council members and the broader international community.
"If the U.S. was serious about a cease-fire, it wouldn’t have vetoed time and again multiple council resolutions,” he said. "It wouldn’t have taken such a detour and played a game of words while being ambiguous and evasive on critical issues.”
Algeria’s UN ambassador, Amar Bendjama, said he spoke for the Arab world when he rejected the measure -- saying the draft resolution failed to adequately address the suffering of the Palestinian people and convey the urgent need for a cease-fire.
He said that had the Council passed its February resolution, thousands of innocent lives could have been saved. More than 32,000 Palestinians – mostly women and children – have been killed since the war began last October.
These figures represent lives and “hopes that have been destroyed”, Bendjama said, adding that the US text made no mention of Israel’s responsibility for their deaths.
The US Vetoes three resolutions
The US, Israel’s closest ally, has vetoed three resolutions demanding a ceasefire, the most recent being an Arab-backed measure supported by 13 council members with one abstention on February 20.
The US struck down a Brazilian resolution on October 18, 2023 that called for “humanitarian pauses,” which US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield vetoed as it “did not mention Israel’s right of self-defense.”
The US vetoed a second UAE sponsored resolution on December 8, 2023 rejecting a version put forth by the United Arab Emirates that called for “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” as well as “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” and “ensuring humanitarian access.”
More recently, US vetoed an Algerian resolution on February 20, 2024 that called for an immediate ceasefire, which Thomas-Greenfield said “would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy.”
World Socialist Web Site – March 23, 2024
Israeli regime praises fraudulent US-backed Gaza “ceasefire” resolution
By Andre Damon
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council failed to pass a resolution sponsored by the United States that was absurdly proclaimed by the US media as a “ceasefire” resolution.
In fact, the resolution would have given the UN’s imprimatur to the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza, specifying conditions for “ongoing and future operations” by the Israeli military.
The resolution linked any “ceasefire” with the achievement of Israel’s stated war aims, effectively restating the declaration by US President Joe Biden during the State of the Union address earlier this month that a ceasefire could be achieved by Hamas “laying down arms.”
Indeed, in motivating the resolution, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said its aim was to “put pressure on Hamas,” not Israel.
In explaining Algeria’s vote against the resolution, Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s representative to the UN, said the resolution “implies a license for continuing bloodshed.”
He noted, “The text presented today does not convey a clear message of peace. It tacitly allows for continuing civilian casualties and lacks clear safeguards to prevent further escalation.
“It is a laissez-passer to continuing killing of Palestinian civilians,” Bendjama explained. “The emphasis on measures to reduce civilian harm from ongoing and future operations implies a license for continuing bloodshed.”
Algeria was joined by China and Russia, which both vetoed the resolution.
The Israeli government, which has repeatedly denounced the United Nations for its officials’ criticism of the genocide, fully endorsed the United States’ resolution.
“The American resolution, should it have passed, would have marked a moment of morality for the UN,” Israeli UN envoy Gilad Erdan said, praising the US’s willingness to “condemn the Hamas monsters.”
He added, “Yet sadly, for purely political reasons, this resolution did not pass, and terrorists can continue benefiting from this Council whitewashing their crimes.”
Erdan then launched into a tirade of genocide denial, absurdly proclaiming that universally-recognized statistics about the civilian death toll are made up and that no one is starving in Gaza.
The Israeli delegate condemned the “libelous narrative of famine in Gaza,” proclaiming absurdly, “There is absolutely no limit that Israel places on humanitarian aid entering Gaza.”
He claimed the allegations by the UN of mass deaths in Gaza were a fraud, declaring that “Numbers [of civilian casualties] supplied by the terrorists are thrown around and quoted as if they are [the] Word of God. Yet, in essence, these numbers are merely the lies of Hamas that the UN is so quick to parrot.
“Israel has taken steps that no other military in any other conflict has ever taken, all in order to mitigate civilian casualties,” he said.
He concluded by reiterating Israel’s determination to assault the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinian refugees are sheltering. “The fire will grow again and spread. This is what will happen without an operation in Rafah. Israel sees no alternative. The road to a permanent ceasefire passes through Rafah.”
In response to the veto of its resolution by Russia and China, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield used language essentially identical to that of Israel, claiming that those countries “refuse to condemn Hamas.”
“Russia and China refuse to condemn Hamas, from burning people alive to gunning down innocent civilians at a concert, to raping women and girls, to taking hundreds of people hostage.”
Thomas-Greenfield expressed her determination to veto any call for a genuine ceasefire, declaring, “So if that alternative resolution comes up for a vote and does not support the diplomacy happening on the ground, we may once again find this council deadlocked.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Friday with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his latest visit to Israel. Following the meeting, Netanyahu doubled down on his declaration that Israel will assault Rafah.
“We have no way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah and eliminating the rest of the battalions there,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “And I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the US. But if we must, we will do it alone.”
The discussions on the next stage of the genocide between Netanyahu and Blinken took place amid ongoing famine and mass murder in Gaza. Earlier this week, Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, implied that Israel is deliberately starving the population.
“The extent of Israel’s continued restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza, together with the manner in which it continues to conduct hostilities, may amount to the use of starvation as a method of war, which is a war crime,” he said.
A separate report published Tuesday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership, the official global body designating starvation, found that “famine is imminent,” with a “major acceleration of deaths and malnutrition.”
The IPC assessment notes that 1.1 million people are expected to face catastrophic levels of hunger and risk famine in Gaza, the highest number of people in that category ever recorded since the beginning of the current classification system.
Israel’s siege of Al-Shifa Hospital continued for a fifth day, with more than 160 people killed and 600 arrested, including medical staff. Earlier this week, the Euro-Med Monitor human rights organization reported that Israel has been carrying out mass summary executions at the hospital.
On Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the official death toll from the genocide stands at 32,070; once the missing are added to that toll, the number increases to over 40,000.
The same day, Al Jazeera published video footage of one of the daily massacres that occur in Gaza, showing a group of four young unarmed men walking down a road being blown up by a series of drone strikes.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli drones have been hovering over Rafah non-stop, leading to panic as the 1.2 million refugees crowded into the city expect an imminent attack.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/03/23/twrx-m23.html
One must not miss the real reckoning in Gaza
By Yasin Aktay
The massacres of the genocidal Israel in Gaza continue unabated on the 164th day, even during the Ramadan, the spiritual climate of which all Muslims living today and all believers who have lived in history come together at a certain date. From the last meeting of the Israeli war cabinet, instead of stopping the genocide for one reason or another, there are talks of attacking even the people driven from the North in Rafah, where they sought refuge and gathered. What is being talked about is already being done, it has been done. For months, the hungry people hit weaponized hunger have become targets of Israeli bombs and sniper fire in the aid points where they gather to receive the aid barely delivered to them. Dozens of people lose their lives in the most horrific way each time.
Unfortunately, this scene has three aspects that have now been accepted as normal from all over the world: Israel's disproportionate, unstoppable aggression, the powerful who support these crimes against humanity unabashedly or without excuse, and those who, even if they speak out loudly against these massacres, do nothing, cannot do anything, in practice.
Protests and anti-genocide and anti-Zionism voices put forward since October 7 from all over the world seem to affect all perceptions, feelings, and attitudes of the current world order. However, this effect does not have an immediate, stopping effect on these genocides, and this situation alone seems to have very different, perhaps different effects on those who oppose this genocide to a certain extent. The hopeful expectation of "Bandits do not rule the world" is slowly being replaced by the resigned realism that the bandits have always ruled the world.
The people of Gaza, who knowingly and willingly sacrifice their lives for their freedom, for their honor, scatter this pessimistic scene with the atmosphere of a feast they reveal with their resistance and martyrdom, and establish the dominance of faith. By reminding us that both suffering and martyrdom are included in the account of the hereafter, they once again calculate the mathematics of the accounts made about this, but of course, for those who understand.
Perhaps many people can still sit and say, "What did Hamas gain by doing these actions? It led so many people to death." However, the people of Gaza remind us every day of the disaster contained in a world in which we struggle. They point out the danger within the conditions we find ourselves in and consider ourselves very safe. The truth, which is slapped on the faces of those who can understand interpreting it as avoiding death, is the danger of avoiding presenting your death against those who try to take away your honor, your dignity. During this reckoning, there are always wise strategists, tacticians who say, "If they hadn't gone to war, wouldn't they have been exempt from death?" The ancient word reminds them of the real account by saying, "Wouldn't death find you wherever you are if you stayed in your comfortable beds, in your sheltered homes?"
Everyone needs to know that the people of Gaza, who knowingly and willingly sacrifice their lives for their freedom, for their honor, lose nothing. The real losers are those who cannot interpret these events correctly, who cannot see the verses contained in these events, the obvious truths.
WHAT CAN TÜRKİYE DO FOR GAZA?
During a speech he made about Ramadan, the Imam of Masjid al-Aqsa, Ikrimah Sabri, said that the leaders of Islamic countries only speak, at best, and do nothing other than condemning, even strongly condemning. He spoke from the best position to give the Muslim world's grade. This note is unlike the notes given by international rating agencies in one area or another.
The attitude displayed by the Islamic world regarding what can be done for Gaza will be recorded as a weakness as long as it does not stop the massacres, and even if it does not demand an account from Israel and those who stand behind it. Gaza will win, and those who remain silent about its elevation to martyrdom will lose. The so-called "realistic" justifications put forward about what can be done in this regard do not actually reflect the situation of reaching a limit after investigating, probing, and putting forward a will. On the contrary, what can really be done in this regard has not been seriously investigated and a will has been put forward by any actor.
During this process, even though it is a fact that Türkiye, which everyone expects more from than anyone else, is "alone" and cannot get enough support from the Arab world, this fact can never be an excuse for being content with what has been done. Essentially, Türkiye can still be a pioneer in mobilizing the Arab-Islamic world and developing a more effective and result-oriented approach to them in this regard. By reminding the Arab world, it can mobilize them:
The indifference to these actions ultimately destroys the legitimacy, honor, and dignity of Arab leadership. The attacks on Gaza should be seen directly as attacks on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, and they already are. Every bomb dropped targets the existence, independence, and dignity of each of these countries. Their silence about this does not show that they have no value for being Arab, Muslim, statehood, or leadership every day. Of course, it can create pressure in the diplomatic manner, at least gathering the Islamic world and using all the cards that can be used against Israel, the US, and all countries that support Israeli genocide together.
After the decision of the International Court of Justice, there is now the opportunity to use a different, more superior, and more insistent language against the US. New diplomatic maneuver areas have emerged. Israel is guilty according to universal values and laws, and everyone who helps it is complicit in this crime. Of course, first, it is necessary to start with the easier things that can be done: completely stopping trade and starting to deliver humanitarian aid by creating new realities.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/columns/yasin-aktay/one-must-not-miss-the-real-reckoning-in-gaza-3679515
US politicians also see Israel as a Western colony...
By Selçuk Türkyılmaz
It seems that a serious polarization has emerged in both the US and the UK as Israel's massacres have come to light and reached an undeniable level. Both countries openly supported Israel after October 7 as a continuation of their traditional state policies. This support had not been questioned before, and there had been no polarization. Therefore, they saw no problem in supporting Israel after October 7. However, Israel was desperate for the first time against the Palestinians. Hamas emerged unexpectedly, upsetting Israel's balance. Not only Israel, but also the US and the UK, along with countries like Germany and France, were stunned by Hamas's perseverance and abandoned their traditional calm approach. They were about to use violence as a systematic political tool again. This would make the Palestinians submit. However, this did not happen, and the Palestinians did not submit. Israel's systematic violence led to the blood of Palestinians spilling onto Western streets. This also led to polarization between the elites and the public.
As we have tried to express in our previous writings, it was widely discussed that soldiers from the US and the UK armies committed genocide crimes on the side of Israel after October 7. The bases in the southern part of Cyprus, UK, were used in Israel's attacks on Gaza, and they did not feel the need to hide this fact. Because they wanted the feeling of horror to be felt all over the geography from the very first day. They just didn't want to give the impression that they were involved in the actual war. Probably, this situation would not lead to any polarization in the UK and the US. Israel had made Gaza uninhabitable many times in the past, but the events were quickly covered up. Because the Palestinians could not spread the resistance over time. But this time, the Palestinians achieved an unprecedented success by landing on Israel. Therefore, they decided to punish the Palestinians in front of the world. They were confident that Israel would win again. For this reason, they became partners in all the crimes of Israel. Because Israel was their creation.
The colonial desires of the US and the UK had begun to be on the agenda in the West after Gaza. This shows that events are open to different interpretations. What's interesting is that even pro-Israel politicians are accused of trying to turn Israel into an "American colony." When Republican writer and politician Elliott Abrams criticized Chuck Schumer, the majority leader of the US Senate, he made this accusation, which is an important clue to the dimensions of polarization. The same debates apply to the UK as well. There, there is a polarization between the elites shaping state policy and the streets.
A new language had been constructed in Orientalist literature since the early 1990s. This language was fueled by the US and UK's occupation of the Gulf region. They targeted both Islam and Muslims directly. While Islam and terrorism were equated, obstacles to invasion and occupation were sought to be eliminated. The unnoticed dimension in the construction of this new language was that the process was under the control of Zionist Orientalists. They caused great destruction in the Islamic geography. But Zionist Orientalists had also poisoned the Western intellectual world. Intellectuals, along with the elites, took sides with Israel. This further exacerbates the tension arising from polarization.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
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