The UN ceasefire resolution marks a low point in US-Israel relations - opinion

• Published date: 29 March 2024
• Author: DAVID BEN-BASAT
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Both Israeli and international media outlets made a big deal out of the first few lines of the ceasefire demand while choosing to play down the more significant part of the resolution, which was the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages

With US-Israel relations at a low point, the Jewish state's decision not to send its delegation to Washington for talks about the hostage situation and the IDF's entry into Rafah has in no way contributed toward the amelioration of relations with America's most sympathetic president. Yet we are duty bound to remember that just after October 7, US President Joe Biden, with his famous "Don't!" prevented the war from escalating on additional fronts and dispatched the United States Navy to the region.

Israel and the US should have, together, embraced the second part of the Security Council's resolution and demanded the immediate release of the hostages as a prerequisite for the ceasefire.

The US decision not to exercise its veto was a clear sign of the deteriorating relations between the two countries. It is incumbent upon Israel to avoid any further degradation of that relationship, by continuing talks and negotiations.

What is puzzling is the Israeli media's delight in the mistranslation – from English to Hebrew – of the statement by Republican presidential candidate and former and perhaps future president Donald Trump, calling for an end to the war, for Israel to "finish up" with Hamas and to bring back the hostages. The Hebrew headline was of course "Trump also supports ending the war," insinuating that he was going against Israel's wishes.

This is similar to how the second part of the UN resolution – the return of the hostages – was basically pushed off the page by news of the demand for a ceasefire.

The die was cast on October 7

THE DIE was cast on October 7, the day the Hamas monsters carried out a pogrom against Israel. This did not lead to yet another "operation" but to an actual war against the Hamas Nazi tyrants, aimed at dismantling their capabilities and destroying their every last battalion and missile.

Years of wrong moves and erroneous thinking and the unfounded opinion that Yahya Sinwar and Hamas had been deterred, vanished into thin air. Much has been and will be written about how the "best army in the world" was caught napping and why its elite Unit 8200 was lulled into a false status quo, leading to Israel's worst intelligence failure and military disaster since the establishment of the state...