Michael R. Gordon, Vivian Salama and Dov Lieber
The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza after the U.S. allowed it to pass by abstaining, prompting Israel to withdraw from coming high-level meetings with the Biden administration.
The unusual U.S. move signaled the administration’s growing frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose relations with the White House have deteriorated over their clashing political agendas and conflicting views of military tactics.
By abstaining rather than vetoing the resolution, the U.S. enabled the Security Council for the first time since the war began in October to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire.
The resolution calls for “an immediate cease-fire” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ends April 9, “leading to a lasting sustainable cease-fire, and also the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant arriving Monday at the State Department in Washington.
Netanyahu’s office said that the wording of the resolution was unacceptable because it didn’t explicitly make a cease-fire conditional on the release of hostages held by Hamas.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told the Security Council the American position on that link was unchanged. “A cease-fire of any duration must come with the release of hostages,” she said. “This is the only path.”
Despite Israel’s objections, U.S. officials said the language was an improvement over previous resolutions they had vetoed, including the call for a short-term cease-fire, but said they couldn’t vote in favor of it because it didn’t condemn Hamas.
Netanyahu had planned to send two of his closest aides—Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and National Security Council head Tzachi Hanegbi—for meetings beginning Tuesday on a planned ground operation in Rafah, in southern Gaza. The U.S. has tried to head off the operation out of concern that it could cause extensive casualties among the more than 1 million civilians who have taken refuge in the city.
Cancellation of the talks marks a significant setback for the White House, which strongly backed Israel’s Gaza invasion when it started nearly six months ago but is now urging that Israel fundamentally rethink its approach to Rafah, where four battalions of Hamas fighters appear determined to make a last stand.
It comes as the public rift between Netanyahu and President Biden over Israel’s operations in Gaza continues to widen as both leaders try to navigate political headwinds at home.
Allowing a cease-fire resolution to pass could help Biden politically with Democrats who say he hasn’t done enough to rein in Netanyahu. In canceling the Washington talks, Netanyahu underscored his distance from Biden, a stance that could help him as he battles to keep intact his far-right governing coalition.
Netanyahu’s government has grown increasingly isolated abroad over the impact of the Israeli military operation on Gaza’s civilian population, and U.S. officials acknowledge that supporting Israel’s military campaign is coming at a growing political cost.
The Biden administration had vetoed three previous U.N. resolutions since the conflict began, two of which would have demanded an immediate cease-fire and were opposed by Israel. The abstention Monday came after a push Friday by the U.S. to pass a resolution that it sponsored calling for a cease-fire. The measure was vetoed by Russia and China.
The U.S. decision not to veto the resolution was “a very bad omen,” said Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and adviser to several prime ministers. “If things continue this way,” he said, the so-called special relationship between Israel and the U.S. “will become less special.”
Washington has traditionally used its Security Council veto to shield Israel from proposals that it opposes. It is rare for the U.S. to abstain on resolutions Israel opposes, and the U.S. does so to signal distance from its closest Mideast ally without voting against it.
The U.S. also withheld its veto from an anti-Israel resolution in 2016 when then-President Barack Obama allowed a resolution criticizing Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“Maybe the most important thing the U.S. does politically for Israel is to protect the Israelis from U.N. resolutions that rarely take Israeli concerns into account,” said Dennis Ross, a former U.S. Middle East peace envoy who is now counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank. The decision to abstain is “a pretty potent symbol,” he added.
Netanyahu has already publicly rebuffed the Biden administration’s call to abandon the Rafah ground operation but had said last week that he would send his aides to listen to White House objections and ideas for safeguarding civilians.
A man sits by the bodies of relatives after an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the Biden administration still planned to take up its concerns over the looming Rafah offensive with Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, who is on a separate visit to Washington and planned to meet Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“It’s disappointing,” Kirby said of the canceled visit by the other Israeli officials, saying the U.S. had hoped “to have a fulsome conversation with them about viable alternatives to going in on the ground in Rafah.”
The rift over the Monday vote in the Security Council, some former officials said, will only complicate the continuing discussions about military strategy.
“The administration abstained on a Security Council resolution that will make no difference on the ground,” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. peace negotiator and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Netanyahu’s antics in canceling the delegation’s visit and attacking the administration will make it that much harder to get a hostage deal and come up with an alternative plan for Rafah.”
Despite the growing tensions, the Biden administration has stopped short of taking more dramatic steps, such as withholding arms from Israel.
In contrast to Netanyahu, his chief political rival Benny Gantz, head of the centrist National Unity party and a member of the war cabinet with close ties to Washington, said the resolution had “no operational significance” for Israel.
“Israel will continue to listen to our allies while doing what is best for our national security,” said Gantz, who called on Netanyahu to go to Washington and hold direct talks with Biden.
In response, Netanyahu released a statement chastising Gantz for wanting to send a delegation to Washington today, even after Hamas welcomed the U.N. resolution the U.S. allowed to pass.
Gilad Kariv, an opposition lawmaker in Israel’s left-wing Labor party, said on social media that canceling the delegation’s visit would only deepen Israeli’s isolation.
“Israel’s enemies are rubbing their hands with pleasure in the face of the international isolation to which the State of Israel is being pushed, which is a direct result of Netanyahu’s arrogance and irresponsible conduct,” wrote Kariv.
Meanwhile, talks on a temporary cease-fire stalled after negotiators failed to bridge key divides between Israel and Hamas, Arab mediators said.
Failure to reach a deal could accelerate the timeline for Israel to move ahead with the planned Rafah operation. It could also dampen hopes for a major humanitarian relief effort in the enclave, where international organizations say some areas are facing the prospect of famine and shortages of medical supplies are widespread.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to Palestinian health authorities, whose numbers don’t distinguish between militants and noncombatants.
Israel says 130 hostages abducted on Oct. 7 are still being held in Gaza. They were taken when Hamas stormed across the border and killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Damage from Israeli airstrikes in Rafah.
The aftermath of an Israeli strike in Rafah.
Netanyahu says that he is committed to getting a deal to release the hostages but faces record-low approval ratings, and his delicate, far-right coalition may fray under the strain of a hostage deal that includes significant Israeli concessions.
Some analysts and former security officials say Netanyahu is more focused on his own political survival than reaching a deal.
“Netanyahu is currently the one in the Israeli government who is delaying a hostage deal,” said Noam Tibon, a retired Israeli general. “What guides him is not a hostage deal but the survival of his government.”
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