🧵 With this UNSC resolution, the Biden administration has fully become Hamas's lawyer in the international arena. This is a multifaceted attack not just on Israel's ability to prosecute the war, but on its security needs after the war. Think I'm exaggerating? Read on. 1/
https://twitter.com/NabilAbiSaab/status/1799905535262667187
First point: Phase 1 of the "ceasefire" doesn’t require the release of any specific number of hostages. It only calls for “the release of hostages including women, the elderly and the wounded.” Hamas could plausibly satisfy this by releasing three people. In fact, the terms of the hostages-for-prisoners deal in Phase 1 are so vague that they seem *designed* to cause the deal to fail in Phase 1. 2/
What really gives the game away is this: “if the negotiations take longer than six weeks for phase one, the ceasefire will still continue as long as negotiations continue.” So what they’ve done here is create a deal that will never be concluded and then stipulate that as long as it’s not concluded, Israel is not allowed to fight. Not very subtle! 3/
Second point: Phase 1 grants one of Hamas’s major demands, that there be no restrictions on movement inside Gaza. Why is Hamas so fixated on this demand? Because it's what Hamas needs to re-establish control over all of Gaza and ensure that it remains the governing power in Gaza -- in other words, ensure that it can declare victory. Another unambiguous win for Hamas, courtesy of the Biden admin. 4/
Third point: Another astonishing concession to Hamas is contained in the resolution's comment “OP5,” which “Rejects any attempt at…territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza.” What does this mean?
It's a reference to the security zone Israel has been constructing along its border, and the Gaza-Egypt border, inside of Gaza. This is a no-man's-land buffer, around 1km wide, that will make it vastly harder for terrorists to get near Israel’s border, and also enable Israel to stop Iran from resupplying Hamas with weapons via tunnels under the Egypt border. Much of this buffer zone is already built. But this UNSC resolution says it's illegal. The Biden administration apparently wants Hamas to easily re-arm and easily be able to launch another blitzkrieg across Israel’s border. 5/
It's a reference to the security zone Israel has been constructing along its border, and the Gaza-Egypt border, inside of Gaza. This is a no-man's-land buffer, around 1km wide, that will make it vastly harder for terrorists to get near Israel’s border, and also enable Israel to stop Iran from resupplying Hamas with weapons via tunnels under the Egypt border. Much of this buffer zone is already built. But this UNSC resolution says it's illegal. The Biden administration apparently wants Hamas to easily re-arm and easily be able to launch another blitzkrieg across Israel’s border. 5/
Final point: This resolution, like so much Biden foreign policy, seems to contradict Biden's stated desire to stop the war. If passed, it will give Hamas and Israel's enemies in the region an unprecedented morale boost. It will place the United States in a de facto alliance with terrorist groups and their state sponsors against Israel. It will encourage Hezbollah to escalate its attacks. One thing it will not do is stop Israel from winning. But it will further complicate the war, and therefore prolong it, deeper into election season. Biden, whose cynicism is boundless, shouldn't want that.
This is a shameful moment in American diplomacy. Biden is joining the jackals. He's old enough that he would get the reference.
This is a shameful moment in American diplomacy. Biden is joining the jackals. He's old enough that he would get the reference.
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