The fractured relationship between United States President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now official, as is Israel’s isolation on the international stage.
In theory, the US said nothing at all in the latest vote at the United Nations Security Council: abstaining from casting a vote on whether it supports an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war with Hamas. In practice, sitting out the vote was a symbolically powerful moment, allowing the UN’s premier forum for peace and security to pass its first ceasefire resolution since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October.
Throughout most of its history, the US has been Israel’s last line of defence on the Security Council, using its veto power as a permanent member to block resolutions that implicitly or explicitly criticise Israel.
Gilad Erdan, permanent representative of Israel to the UN, addresses the Security Council in New York.Credit: AP
Since the beginning of the war, the US has vetoed three ceasefire resolutions, arguing they undermined Israel’s right to self-defence and risked empowering militant group Hamas after it launched its brutal October 7 attacks.
Now the US has laid down its veto, formalising a rift between Biden and Netanyahu that has been apparent for months. In December, Biden warned Israel that it was losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza; in February he described Israel’s military campaign as “over the top”.
Even Biden’s likely presidential opponent and fierce Israel defender Donald Trump is fed up with the conflict.
“You have to finish up your war. To finish it up. You gotta get it done,” Trump told the Israel Hayom newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.
He added that “Israel has to be very careful because you’re losing a lot of the world, you’re losing a lot of support”.
The short resolution passed by the Security Council demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, which ends on April 9, as a step towards a “lasting sustainable ceasefire” as well as the unconditional release of all hostages.
The US has sought to downplay the significance of the vote, saying that it supported the key elements of the resolution: a ceasefire and the return of hostages held by Hamas.
“We understood [this] also to be the government of Israel’s position,” US State Department spokesman Matt Miller said, referring to recent efforts to secure another release of Israeli hostages in exchange for a break in the fighting.
Miller, like US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, described the resolution as “non-binding” – even though the UN describes Security Council resolutions as binding on all member states.
Israel, however, saw the vote as consequential, with Netanyahu’s office labelling it a “clear retreat” from the previous US position.
“The US has backed down from its consistent stance in the Security Council since the beginning of the war,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a diplomatic visit to the US. Credit: AP
“This backing down hurts the war effort and the effort to release the hostages because it gives Hamas hope that international pressure will allow them to get a ceasefire without releasing our hostages.”
To show his displeasure, Netanyahu cancelled a planned visit by Israeli officials this week to discuss a possible Israeli invasion of the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
The looming possibility of a Rafah invasion convinced the US to switch from veto to abstention in the latest Security Council vote. The Biden administration has insisted that a full-scale invasion of Rafah would be a mistake and is trying to pressure Netanyahu to pursue a different strategy to defeat Hamas.
These efforts have so far been failing. After US Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Israel last week on a mission to avert a Rafah incursion, Netanyahu insisted that “we have no way to defeat Hamas without entering Rafah”.
“I told him that I hope we would do this with US support but if necessary we will do it alone,” he said.
Legally binding or not, the Security Council resolution will not force Israel to halt its military campaign or prevent it from invading Rafah.
Tuesday’s abstention may have been significant, but it was not unprecedented. In 2016, the Obama administration abstained from voting on a resolution demanding a halt to the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, a move seen as dramatic at the time. The vote deterred Israel not a bit: settlement building has continued, and even accelerated, since the resolution passed.
It will be the same story with the latest resolution given the Israeli public, still traumatised by October 7, overwhelmingly wants to see Hamas defeated in Gaza.
Most importantly, the US has yet to show any sign of turning off the supply of tens of billions of dollars of military aid to Israel.
On the day of the ceasefire vote, the US State Department announced it had found no evidence that Israel had violated the directive that military aid recipients comply with international human rights law. That cleared the way for the flow of military equipment and cash that sustains the Israeli war machine to continue unimpeded.
As cheers broke out after the Security Council resolution passed, the Palestinian Authority’s UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, told the forum that it “must be a turning point”.
“This must lead to saving lives on the ground,” he said.
It’s an outcome the international community longs for, but remains far from assured.
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