THE contrast could not have been more telling. In his farewell speech to the UN General Assembly last week, President Joe Biden spoke proudly about how he defended Ukraine and its people against Russian aggression. But speaking about the Middle East, he applied different principles. Israel was cast as the victim with barely any concern expressed for the plight of the Palestinian people facing aggression and oppression. He urged the world to help Ukraine win the war and said the US will not “look away” unless there was a just and durable peace based on the UN Charter. On the Middle East, Biden focused on the “horrors of October 7” and hostages captured by Hamas, saying little about the death and destruction wrought by Israel’s year-long, ongoing war on Gaza. The UN Charter was not invoked despite its countless violations by Israel. Biden mentioned the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and of averting a full-scale war in the region. But these words sounded hollow given the role his administration has played over the months in the conflict.

That role is evident from the several times the US vetoed resolutions for a ceasefire in the UN Security Council and from its relentless arming of Israel. In the past year, Washington has given Israel over $12 billion in arms supplies and deployed additional military forces in the region to ‘protect Israel’. Last week, Israel secured an additional $8.7bn in US military aid. Over the past 11 months, the Biden administration hardly spoke of the tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians killed — over 41,000 now — by Israel’s military offensive and bombings. It never condemned repeated Israeli........

© Dawn