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Why the US abstained on the UN Gaza ceasefire

  • Wesam Bahrani Wesam Bahrani
  • Source: Al Mayadeen English
  • 29 Mar 2024 15:12
  • 4 Shares
7 Min Read

Gaza enters US politics with the blood of its children, its resilience, and its tragedies.

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  • Why the US abstained on the UN Gaza ceasefire
    The Biden campaign team has felt the ripple effects of the Gaza genocide back home (illustrated by Zeinab al-Hajj; Al Mayadeen English)

The US abstention on the Gaza ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council had very little to do with the "Israeli" genocidal campaign against Palestinians in the tiny coastal enclave. Domestic politics played a major, if not the only, role in the US decision-making. 

With the world watching on with horror for nearly six months as the Israeli regime commits one war crime after the other, the administration of US President Joe Biden blocked numerous ceasefire attempts, opting instead to support the occupying regime all the way. 

But with a presidential election on the horizon, the Biden campaign team has felt the ripple effects of the Gaza genocide back home as voters took their anger out at the ballot boxes in the US primaries. 

Fury over the incumbent American President's inaction amid the killing, destruction, and starvation of 2.3 million Palestinians was evident in key battleground states such as Michigan where more than 100,000 former Democrat voters voted uncommitted during the primaries in late February. 

The protest vote was a wake-up call for the Democrat nominee seeking re-election in November. 

Reports that surfaced about the Biden administration calling on "Israel" to allow more aid into Gaza - to essentially ease public anger - did little to help when other news revealed that the White House had used a loophole to quietly send more than 100 arms packages, without Congressional review, for the "Israeli" military to drop on civilians or attack hospitals and places of shelter. 

Despite the incumbent President winning the Michigan primary, strong fears are lingering over his shoulders as organizers of the protest vote have vowed to punish Biden in other battleground states over his position on Gaza. 

In several swing states, Biden hasn't won the primaries by the margins he had expected, and it's those fine margins that will decide if he sits in the Oval Office for a second term. 

Despite mainstream media glossing over the reality that public anger in the US on Gaza expands to voters from all backgrounds and ethnicities, reports suggest that the US President is aware of this diversity and is reportedly furious with his campaign staff. 

It's a timely reminder for those who claim that protests, on the streets or at the ballot boxes, will change little on the ground in Gaza. The Security Council resolution is evidence that protests in any shape or form can apply pressure on leaders and reshape global politics. 

It is shameful that huge impressive marches are seen every week on Saturdays in some parts of the Western world, whereas the streets of the Arab world are empty on Fridays in some countries, especially those where leaders rule with an iron fist. 

The case of Gaza has, once again, highlighted that the Palestinian struggle is not limited to Arabs and Muslims but is a cause for everyone who has a scintilla of empathy toward mankind and human suffering. 

The US leadership has none of these attributes. The American public, in particular the younger generation, has made a clear point that they will not stand idle and watch a genocide unfold before their eyes. 

Gaza entered the US electoral campaign with the blood of its children, its resilience, and its many untold tragedies. 

As much as Washington sought to portray that the US abstention at the Security Council displayed a sense of sympathy for Palestinians starving a slow brutal death; the American public and a record-growing global pro-Palestine movement can see through Washington's lies and deception. 

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Biden had the power and the influence to pick up the telephone five months ago and tell the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to switch the water taps back on in Gaza and to let food and medicine enter.

Simply placing restrictions on lethal US aid to "Israel" would have put immense pressure on the regime to allow food and medicine in, but the US President chose to see Palestinians suffer from acute malnutrition. 

The US oversaw and greenlit all the Israeli atrocities, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war, in the hope of wiping the Palestinians off the map in the totally blockaded coastal enclave. 

By not using its veto power to block the resolution, the landscape may not have exactly shifted when it comes to US support for "Israel", especially when American diplomats claim the vote was "non-binding". 

There haven't been any concrete steps on restrictions to the deadly aid flowing from Washington to "Tel Aviv" so far. 

As "Israel" commits more massacres, the resolution will place enormous pressure on the US administration to impose those restrictions and on the Israeli regime to halt the genocide. 

The man-made disaster that has turned Gaza into a concentration camp has been enabled by the Biden White House. The US administration has the blood of tens of thousands of women and children on its hands. 

The Gaza genocide is a US-Israeli genocide. Washington's only concern now is how this genocide will impact the polling stations and its proxy regime's increasing isolation on the world stage. 

"Israel" has never been so isolated internationally. This also plays a major role in US domestic politics. There is fear among the Zionist lobby in Washington, DC, which works and examines developments closely with Capitol Hill, that the occupying regime in Palestine is inflicting too much self-harm. 

The Israeli ban on international reporters from entering Gaza may have done Washington and "Tel Aviv" more harm than good. 

Local reporters who were already in Gaza reporting for regional media outlets before the relentless air and ground assault started are a source of news for the region, despite the Israeli military killing a record number of journalists in the tiny Palestinian territory. 

Outside of West Asia, a growing number of voters in the US and beyond have largely taken to social media for their source of news on Gaza, where acts of war crimes and genocide are clearly evident. 

Social media can be misleading at times. But nothing is misleading when Israeli soldiers themselves are filming the atrocities and posting them online for Americans and people around the world to see. 

For critics still in doubt about genocide in Gaza, the UN special rapporteur on human rights, Francesca Albanese, has filed a report documenting how "Israel" has carried out at least three acts that are defined as genocide. 

"The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group," the report warned.

Pressure is mounting on Biden to impose restrictions on the deadly US aid to the Israeli regime. 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
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Wesam Bahrani

Wesam Bahrani

Palestinian activist, journalist, political commentator and former TV host.

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