‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas
New York TimesNov 30, 2023
UN General Assembly Adopts Resolution for Immediate Gaza Cease-Fire
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Image copyright: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images News [via Getty Images]
The Facts
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed on Tuesday a resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza after over two months of hostilities between Israel and Hamas, with 153 votes in favor, 10 against, and 23 abstentions.
This non-binding, symbolic measure comes as a similar resolution failed in the UN Security Council last week due to a US veto on the grounds that a cease-fire would allow Hamas to regroup and possibly launch another attack like Oct. 7.
The Spin
Pro-Israel narrative
Though this has been a tragic war, Israel cannot allow Hamas to survive. Hamas seized upon the temporary pause to mark Israeli positions and prepare itself for continued attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza. Indeed, the pace at which Israeli forces maneuvered in Gaza threw Hamas's military leadership off-kilter, and Israel will have to work intelligently in its campaign in the south of the strip to fully eliminate the terrorist group so it can never launch an attack like Oct. 7 again.
Pro-Palestine narrative
Israel continues to demonstrate that its war is not against Hamas but against the Palestinian people as a whole. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and Israel has effectively rendered the north of the strip unlivable. Unfortunately, the temporary ceasefire only gave civilians a few days of relative rest, and now Israel has returned to killing Palestinians at an unprecedented rate. The US, Israel's biggest ally, must exert more pressure to end the war.
