Loser of the UN Resolution: Biden

By Seth Mandel, COMMENTARY                                                          25 March 2024

The pauper’s diplomacy of the Biden administration was on display today as it facilitated the passing of a UN Security Council resolution heavily weighted against Israel.

Every minor concession to moral decency was rejected in favor of “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan.” Beggars can’t be choosers, explained Biden’s ambassador to the UN after abstaining from the vote, thus allowing the resolution to pass: “We did not agree with everything in the resolution. For that reason we were unfortunately not able to vote yes. However, as I’ve said before, we fully support some of the critical objectives in this non-binding resolution.”

Let’s be crystal clear about why this was a bad resolution.

Last week the U.S. put forth a version of the resolution that was vetoed by Russia and China. That version asked for Security Council backing for “diplomatic efforts to secure such a ceasefire in connection with the release of all remaining hostages.” [emphasis added]

If you don’t connect a long-lasting ceasefire to the release of the hostages, you are telling Hamas to walk away from the negotiations led by the U.S. to secure those two aims. After all, that same UN ambassador fumed at the time, “we should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardizes the ongoing negotiations.”

Russia’s deputy UN envoy disagreed, insisting that everyone should be comfortable with telling the hostages to rot: “At the coordination stage, almost all Security Council members expressed the view that the demand for an immediate ceasefire should not be conditional on the release of hostages or the condemnation of Hamas.”

Today, the Biden administration declared Russia to be correct. Let the hostages rot or else Joe Biden may lose a few thousand votes in Michigan.

As for the cynical use of “Ramadan” in the ceasefire, the Biden administration should be ashamed of itself for enabling it. The language implicitly portrays Israel’s counteroffensive as a war of religious persecution, or at the very least contempt. That alone will inflame the violent resistance to the mere survival of the Jewish nation. Was there a Hanukkah resolution passed by the UNSC that demanded the release of hostages? Yesterday was Purim; the holiday came and went without a UNSC demand for Hamas to at least return the children it is holding. Next month is the holiday of Passover, in which we recount our ancestors’ prolonged suffering while they were held against their will. How does the godforsaken nest of cretinous trolls at Turtle Bay plan to honor that one?

Never mind. The reason the U.S. has, in the past, called for a ceasefire “as soon as practicable” is that it did not want to privilege Hamas’s strategic positioning over Israel’s, even by accident. This isn’t a game of musical chairs, where the music stops at random and the players sit where they stand. Once you insist on an immediate stoppage, you must at least tie the ceasefire to the release of the hostages or you have recklessly undermined Israel’s standing. Now the U.S. has abandoned any reasonable requirements for a ceasefire, putting the onus entirely on Israel and freeing Hamas from even the pretense of moral responsibility.

This will have consequences. Here at home, it will confirm that the president is a doormat not a doorstop. The protesters who follow him around accusing Biden of all manner of crimes against humanity will see this, correctly, as an invitation to kick him some more. In the naïve hopes of appeasing a faction of goosestepping goons, Biden will have instead rewarded their tactics and incentivized more of the same.

Diplomatically, countries now know that they can simply wait Biden out. When the president says he believes something with every fiber of his being, they will interpret that as “wait two months.” The president’s team’s insistence that he is full of vim and vigor will be replaced by the certainty that this man is tired, so tired.

The dwindling voices of moderation in his party will be at risk of demoralization as well, seeing as the activists they thought were “fringe” are having their message championed successfully by Russia at the UN Security Council, with Biden’s acquiescence.

Not all of them will be demoralized, of course. “It’s appalling the U.S. allowed passage of a resolution that fails to condemn Hamas,” said the conscience of the Democratic Party, Sen. John Fetterman. “The UN has always been unwilling to condemn this group of terrorists, cowards and rapists. We must stand with Israel and stop pandering to the political fringe or Hamas apologists.”

Fetterman isn’t tired of people yelling at him, but he is in the minority.

Finally, today’s gutless performance at the UN proved the administration’s insistence that there is a way for Israel to win this war without going into Rafah, where the remaining Hamas battalions are holed up, is just a ruse. Biden & Co. knew that facilitating the passing of this resolution would mean Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would cancel the delegation he was sending to Washington to hear some ideas for alternate strategies. Let’s be honest. There are no such strategies on offer. The idea is a fantasy. It was a diversion to waste time. Now the administration can waste Israel’s time with UN resolutions while also blaming Bibi for canceling on Biden.

America’s allies have been put on notice. Taking the easy way out a couple times can easily lead to a blanket policy of moral laziness, and the coalition of democracies will have to either pick up the slack or cede the field to Russia, China, and Iran.