On Wednesday, the United States once again used its U.N. Security Council veto power to defeat a ceasefire resolution. Calls for Israel to cease hostilities against the terrorists who murdered, raped and kidnapped its citizens have become repetitive, and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has balked at each one.
But this was no-run-of-the-mill resolution – and its results, in spite of the U.S. veto, suggest Hamas, physically decimated by the Israel Defense Forces, is winning a much more refined war: public relations.
If Hamas' strategy is to continue to hold Israeli hostages until the world forgets them, it may be working. The United Nations resolution put forth called for an immediate ceasefire but did not call on Hamas to release hostages. It didn’t even mention the hostages.
Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor for The Jewish News Syndicate, is appreciative of the Biden administration's pro- Israel stance.
“I was very gratified to see that the Biden administration did in fact veto. It was touch and go for a while – and [while] that was disturbing … at least they came through in the end, and they vetoed this deeply, deeply hostile resolution,” Glick said on Washington Watch later Wednesday.
The New York Post reported on Oct. 7 – one year after Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis – that 64 hostages remain alive and held captive. Thirty-three have been confirmed dead. Regardless of those numbers, 14 nations voted in favor of the latest – there have been at least four others – ceasefire resolution.
“As this council has previously called for, a durable end to the war must come with the release of the hostages. These two urgent goals are inextricably linked. This resolution abandons that necessity, and for that reason the United States cannot support it,” U.S. Ambassador Robert A. Wood, the alternate representative of the U.S., stated.
The Biden administration stood strong for Israel Wednesday, and indeed has vetoed other U.N. ceasefire resolutions. It also has helped defend Israel from rocket attacks launched by Iran. But too often, the U.S. has left its ally twisting in the Middle East winds, Glick says.
“Bear in mind the United States government under the Biden-Harris administration has poured $2 billion into the Palestinian coffers, and the Palestinian Authority, of course, sponsors terror,” Glick told show host Tony Perkins. “They pay salaries to terrorists who are in Israeli prisons and annuities to the families of terrorists who are dead. That’s one aspect of it.”
Veto is great, but there’s this …
Another is that while Israel seeks to destroy Hamas, the U.S. can often be found propping it up, as Glick explained.
“They’re also pouring money into Gaza, which is still under the Hamas regime. The administration's policy is to block Israel's efforts to be in charge of the distribution of humanitarian aid. So, by giving all of this food and water, medicine, etcetera, to Hamas to distribute, that maintains their iron grip on power,” Glick said.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) last week announced it is providing $230 million in additional funding for economic recovery and development programs in the West Bank – Judea and Samaria – and in Gaza.
Hamas has long been accused by Israel of stealing aid intended for civilians.
“To the extent there’s a problem with food supplies there, it is well known that Hamas steals and plunders all the civilian, all the humanitarian supplies that are coming in,” Eugene Kontorovich, director of the Center for Middle East and International Law at George Mason, said on Washington Watch in May after aid landing the U.S.-built floating pier was promptly looted.
Biden was vocal and strong in his support for Israel in the days immediately after the October 2023 attack. Soon his stance changed, perhaps in response to election-year political pressure in the U.S.
The political hay is in the barn now, and Biden is making questionable foreign policy decisions on his way out the door. He’s been criticized by numerous U.S. lawmakers who say he’s moving closer to expanding the war between Russia and Ukraine by green-lighting Ukraine’s use of U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to attack inside of Russia.
Millions of dollars more, designated for civilians in theory but almost certainly bound for the hands of Hamas, is one more example.
Israelis hit with sanctions
Sanctioning Israeli citizens in the Judea and Samaria is another example. Soon after the election, congressional Democrats wrote a letter to Biden demanding that his administration “go out swinging,” sanctioning Israeli government members and a non-government organization alike, The New York Post said in an op-ed from Kontorovich and Mark Dubowitz.
These members of Congress want Israelis sanctioned for their political views and activism; their suggested targets are not alleged to have committed any violent or illegal acts, Kontorovich and Dubowitz wrote. Glick addressed that issue.
“It was a real estate company called Amana that lawfully builds homes for Israelis inside of lawful Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria that has just been placed under U.S. sanctions. They are not indicted for anything. They've never been investigated for anything. They're not under arrest for anything under Israeli law. They've committed no crime under American law. They've committed no crime. They're being sanctioned because they are viewed as a danger,” Glick argued.
Biden’s actions make Israel the first U.S. ally to be placed under U.S. sanctions, Glick noted. These individuals could face frozen bank accounts, canceled credit cards and other disruptions in their ability to conduct basic life activities.
“There are currently more Israelis under U.S. sanctions than there are North Koreans,” Glick said.
Daylight wanes on the Biden administration, but for now, he’s still the U.S. president and – as Glick contends – is “acting to undermine Israel's war goal of destroying Hamas as a military organization and as a political entity. You’re having this constant back and forth where they say one thing, and then they do another. It’s very alarming,” she said.
