The US and its key ally – Israel suffered a defeat in the United Nations General Assembly and failed to pass an anti-Hamas resolution, falling short of the two-thirds super-majority needed to make it through. According to a statement by the UN, 87 countries voted in favour of the resolution and 57 opposed it while 33 countries including India abstained. And 23 countries were not present.
And most notedly, the Arab countries such as Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates voted against the resolution. This clearly shows that the US has not been able to break the Arab world from the Palestinian position.
The failure is a major setback for the American and Israeli governments as both had invested considerable diplomatic efforts in getting the resolution to pass with the Palestinian Authority giving a strong opposition. The resolution sought to condemn Hamas for repeatedly firing rockets into Israel and for inciting violence. It also called for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad to put an end to violence.
According to Haaretz “the resolution failed to pass because the General Assembly held a separate vote on the size of the majority needed to pass the resolution about 20 minutes before the vote. The US asked that only a simple majority would be needed to pass the resolution, while Kuwait asked for a two-thirds majority. The Kuwait request won a slim majority and as a result, the passage of the anti-Hamas resolution became impossible.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement said the UN General Assembly received a sweeping majority by countries that stood against the Hamas. “This is the first time that a majority of countries have voted against Hamas and I condemn each of the 87 countries that took a principled stand against Hamas.”
US’s UN envoy Nikki Haley, ahead of the vote, said the resolution stands for a foundational element of peace. She said there can be no peace without a mutual agreement that terrorism is unacceptable. Experts regard the anti-Hamas resolution as a proactive US strategy to support Israel at the world body.
