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The United Nations Security Council resolution passed Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will embolden the Hamas terror organization and hampers efforts to reach an agreement securing the release of Israeli hostages, Israel’s envoy to the UN said Tuesday.
Speaking with Israel National News, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan excoriated not only the United Nations Security Council for passing a resolution Monday 14-0 demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but also the Biden administration for allowing the resolution to pass.
The resolution separately calls for the release of Israeli captives held hostage in Gaza, but does not condition the ceasefire on the hostages’ release.
Erdan rejected States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Greenfield-Thomas’ claim that the U.S. interprets the resolution as being non-binding and the ceasefire conditional on the release of Israeli captives.
“Even if the United States explains that, from their perspective, the decision is not binding and they link the release of hostages with the ceasefire, our enemy does not see it that way,” Erdan said.
“The Palestinian ambassador has already held a press conference explaining legally why the decision is binding and how they will try to promote it. This also opens the door to many legal initiatives against us around the world and to significant damage – hence our frustration and anger.”
Israel, Erdan continued, would ignore the resolution’s demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, but warned that the vote would encourage Hamas to raise its demands in hostage deal negotiations and thus make an agreement more difficult to achieve.
“The decision’s implication is zero – it will have no meaning from Israel’s perspective.”
“Hamas, on the other hand, understands that it cannot militarily defeat the IDF, and its hope is that the international community will pressure us and possibly impose sanctions so that we concede and agree to a ceasefire. Therefore, this decision plays into the hands of Hamas and sabotages our efforts to free hostages and our military effort.”
Monday’s resolution was drafted jointly by the delegations from Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Slovenia, South Korea, Malta, Japan, Mozambique, Ecuador, Algeria, and Guyana, and passed the Security Council 14-0, with only the U.S. abstaining.
The measure “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip.
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Separately, the resolution “also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”
In protest of the resolution’s passage and the Biden administration’s refusal to utilize the American veto in the Security Council, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday canceled a high-level delegation to Washington.
Jerusalem announced that “in light of the change in the American position, Prime Minister Netanyahu decided that the delegation will not depart.”
Netanyahu said that the changed U.S. position “hurts the war effort and the effort to release the hostages” by giving the Hamas terrorist organization hope that international pressure will bring about a ceasefire without freeing the captives.
