In another dramatic day for Israel at the United Nations on Friday, competing Security Council proposals amid a recent spike in violence between Israel and Gaza both failed, starkly baring divisions that have been paralyzing the U.N.'s most powerful body.
After months of urgent council discussions about the escalation in violence, the U.S. vetoed an Arab-backed resolution that sought to explore ways to ensure "international protection" for Palestinian civilians, and there wasn't enough support to pass a U.S. resolution to condemn Hamas, the terrorist group that rules Gaza.
Ten of the council's 15 members – France, Russia, China, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Bolivia, Peru, Sweden, Equatorial Guinea and Kuwait – voted in favor of the first resolution. Britain, the Netherlands, Poland and Ethiopia abstained. Only the United States voted against.
The U.S. was the sole yes vote for its own resolution to condemn Hamas, but a majority didn't take any position as 11 abstained.
So far, the council hasn't been able to agree on so much as a press statement about what the U.N.'s Mideast envoy has called the most serious increase in violence in Gaza since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
"This heavy silence is disastrous," said French Ambassador François Delattre after voting for the Kuwaiti measure. "For the world that is watching us, for the credibility of the council and for multilateralism."
Over the course of two months of violent mass protests at the Gaza border, over 115 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded by Israeli military fire. Most of the casualties have been members of Gaza-based terrorist groups.
Israel says its troops were defending its border and accused Hamas of trying to attack under the cover of the protests.
Hamas and other terrorists bombarded southern Israel with rockets and mortars last week, and Israel responded by striking targets throughout Gaza. Hamas said Wednesday it had agreed to a cease-fire with Israel, but the internecine attacks soon resumed.
The Kuwaiti proposal urged U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to report on ways to ensure Palestinian civilians' "safety, protection and well-being," including recommendations about "an international protection mechanism." The proposal also emphasized the need for accountability and independent investigations into the events in Gaza.
It "deplored" the recent rocket barrage into Israel, without specifying who was behind it, though Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have claimed responsibility.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called it "grossly one-sided" for deploring the use of "any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force by the Israeli forces" while not mentioning Hamas.
"It is now completely clear that the U.N. is hopelessly biased against Israel," she said in a statement. "The resolution places all blame on Israel" and "is wildly inaccurate," she said.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon called the proposal unworthy of consideration. "It is true the residents of Gaza need protection – they need protection from Hamas," he said.
"When Paris was attacked by [Islamic State], the international community stood with France, but when we are attacked by Hamas, you blame Israel," Danon continued.
With that, he welcomed the U.S. veto and said: "The U.S. made it clear that the rules of the game in the U.N. have changed and that the hypocrisy against Israel will not go on forever."
The Palestinian envoy rejected Israeli and U.S. claims that the measure was biased: "If anything, the draft did not go far enough in addressing the nightmare the Palestinian people are living," Ambassador Riyad Mansour said. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians had a vote on the measures.
Kuwaiti Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi said the council's lack of action "will increase the sentiments of despair among the Palestinians."
The U.S. proposal, meanwhile, demanded that Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups stop "all violent activity and provocative actions" in Gaza and called for a report on the recent actions of "terrorist organizations such as Hamas" in the coastal strip.
"This resolution rightly places responsibility where it belongs," Haley said. But some other council members, including Russia, said the U.S. measure wasn't evenhanded.
A few countries abstained from voting on either proposal.
"Today's resolutions contain elements that are either imbalanced or too vague to be viable," said British Ambassador Karen Pierce.
