The UN general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to back the Palestinian bid for full UN membership, in a move that signalled Israel’s growing isolation on the world stage amid global alarm over the war in Gaza and the extent of the humanitarian crisis in the strip. The move drew an immediate rebuke from Israel. Its envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, delivered a fiery denunciation of the resolution and its backers before the vote, and fed pages of the UN charter into a shredder. The Palestinian envoy, Riyad Mansour, highlighted that the vote was being held at a time when Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city that is the last haven for many people, faced attack from Israeli forces
I saw both this and also this ambassador’s rebuke of the UN’s consideration of Palestinian statehood.
How utterly juvenile. Their full court press against a Palestinian state is splitting at its worst.
Most attorneys, given the chance to address the chamber, would make some sort of concession. Even Trump’s counsel have done so in his Supreme Court immunity case, which is already beyond real, erudite credibility based on the arguments they are making.
Israel cannot continue making these arguments, invoking the Holocaust, while they are indiscriminately killing tens of thousands of Gazan women and children.
It is almost a psychological reflex; as they continue to slaughter innocents, the enemy must be ever greater in order to justify their actions.
The histrionic and jarring and aggressive speeches made by Israel at the U.N. appear to underscore their complete lack of remorse, their callousness in their approach, and their privileged status over recent decades.
If the Israeli government cares about statehood, could they please manage to do what every other state does and describe their borders?
The complete lack of an attempt at damage control in these diplomatic speeches underlies their viciousness.
Holocaust denial or diminution is a real actual problem in younger generations because they haven’t interacted with relatives who have these horrors in living memory. It’s disgusting how they dither when asked about the Holocaust.
Israel has a legitimate right to defend its borders, there is no doubt. However, they shouldn’t have a carte blanche license to kill.
What happened to Mossad? They were meant to be the most surgical special intelligence service of the 20th century. Have they gotten lazy? Or is this a campaign to psychologically demolish an enemy? What happened to Israel’s scholars, who understand the concept of blowback?
Starving Gaza is a war crime and should be punished as such. Such godawful optics that Israel has incinerated the goodwill they enjoyed after the October 7th attacks.
This country is anti-freedom of the press (Al Jazeera, careful control of western journalists embedded with Israeli troops, complete exclusion of independent journalists in Gaza except for Gazan civilian reports, with many indiscriminately murdered Gazan journalists).
They have the audacity to be shocked when the ICC and the UN try to hold them to account for their excessive bloodlust.
It is my opinion that this change in approach is long overdue. Israel has been violating international law for decades with their continual incremental and violent expansion in the Golan Heights and making a modern day Ghetto out of the Gaza Strip.
You cannot kettle a population like they have been doing; restricting travel, but also imports of goods that sustain its people. It is positively disgraceful.
I hope that Biden continues to come around in substantive ways, and I’m encouraged by his shift on policy thus far. It must be hard for a very old man, with very old ties to his Israeli ally, with all of the political pressure he faces in the direction of supporting Israel no matter what, to be the first leader to balk at weapons shipments.
But to do otherwise would be at best grossly irresponsible and at worst, suborning genocide.