A US call for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza

Vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip while circulating a softer hostages-for-ceasefire resolution of its own may have been the best of the bad options available to the Biden administration. President Joe Biden is right to take this step. Given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and the prospect of more to come, he can take other measures as well that might lessen Palestinians’ suffering and loss of life.

The issue is not whether Israel was justified in going after Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7. It was, and it has achieved some of its military aims. It has destroyed significant parts of Hamas’ military infrastructure and reduced its fighting force. Hamas reportedly says it has lost about 6,000 of an estimated 25,000 fighters; Israel says it has killed more than 10,000 of them.

But this war, on its current course, is leading to the wholesale killing of Palestinians while Hamas gains in international standing and the remaining Israeli hostages remain captive. The United States, as Israel’s most important ally and source of military aid, should take the lead in changing that.

The president was right to demonstrate sympathy and support for Israel in the days after the Oct. 7 attack. Since then, his administration has worked tirelessly with Arab allies, first mediating a brief halt in fighting in November and more recently trying to negotiate a longer ceasefire to release the Israeli hostages and to bring humanitarian relief to Gaza.

Hamas launched its attack to provoke an Israeli response, knowing that the people of Gaza would be acutely vulnerable. The terrorist group hides its fighters among civilians and built its infrastructure, including miles of tunnels, underneath homes, schools and hospitals.

Since the war began, the two million people who live in Gaza have been pounded by Israeli bombardment. More than 29,000 people have been killed, according to Palestinian figures; more than half of Gaza’s homes and buildings have been destroyed, and the UN has raised the alarm that, cut off from supplies of food, Palestinians are at risk of starvation. The death toll could soon rise sharply if Israel carries out a ground invasion of Rafah, a city in the far south of Gaza, where the military believes 10,000 Hamas fighters remain and to which one million civilians have fled.

Yet every US effort to rein in the Israeli assault has been rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or blocked by unacceptable demands from Hamas. Netanyahu, in particular, has been more concerned about satisfying the far-right and religious coalition partners who keep him in power. On Friday, he released a position paper for postwar Gaza that allows for indefinite military control by Israel, playing to his base of supporters while angering Palestinians.

This complicates the work of the United States and moderate Arab states, which are trying to engineer a plan for “after Gaza” – a crucial step in making sure that Gaza has a chance at stability once the fighting stops. Although no details have been made public, the plan, which is not part of the proposed Security Council resolution, calls for international help in the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip, the formation of a functional Hamas-free government in the West Bank and Gaza, the normalization of Israeli relations with Saudi Arabia and a road map toward a demilitarized state for the Palestinians.

That plan, however, depends on first arranging a ceasefire durable enough to provide for the release of the remaining Israeli hostages; the most recent proposal was for at least six weeks. The resolution the United States is circulating does not go as far and does not have sharp teeth. It proposes a ceasefire “as soon as practicable,” which can be whatever Israel wants it to be, and it warns Israel against invading Rafah under current conditions. And it will most likely be vetoed by Russia and China.

But given the extraordinary record of US support for Israel at the UN – demonstrated by dozens of vetoes to block resolutions critical of Israel, including three calling for a ceasefire in Gaza – the fact of the United States circulating a resolution that mentions the term “ceasefire” should be a signal to Israelis that US leaders are losing patience with Netanyahu’s forever war.

In the waning days of the Obama administration, the United States also sent a message to Israel when it abstained on a resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank, thus allowing it to pass. The resolution had no practical import, but it made an important point – which the Biden administration has reinforced – about settlements as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.

Similarly, this resolution, however short-lived, is a moment for the US to make clear to the Israeli people that its enduring support for Israel does not extend to the worst policies of its government. However divided America might be, the United States still wields a powerful voice in Israeli affairs, both as supplier of arms and aid and as its political shield on the world stage.

The Israeli public has made clear its longing to dump the discredited Netanyahu. And the Israeli military, which must depend on US arms after almost five months of fighting in Gaza and the threat of Hezbollah to the north, is keenly aware of the danger of alienating the Biden administration. Recent opinion polls show that more than 80 percent of Israelis approve of Washington’s leadership – and prefer Biden to Donald Trump by 14 points.

That gives Biden considerable leverage. One option, described by Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel, in a recent article in the journal Foreign Affairs, would be for Biden to bypass Netanyahu and instead make a direct address to the Israeli people.

He could make clear that Israelis face a stark choice: an endless war that would only create more Hamas-like militants and turn more Americans against Israel, or the plan for “after Gaza” proposed by the Americans and Arabs, one that includes international financing for the rehabilitation of Gaza and peace with Saudi Arabia.

Although Israelis may not be in any mood to contemplate a Palestinian state and the depth of their fury against Hamas may be unknown, Biden has earned considerable trust from them through his decades of unstinting support.

Speaking directly to Israelis may prove to be more fruitful than speaking to Netanyahu, who has alienated himself from the Biden administration and has become an obstacle to any kind of lasting peace. On the contrary, his far-right allies are worsening tensions with the Palestinians. Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist who serves as national security minister, for example, has proposed severe limits on Palestinian and Arab Israeli worshippers at the Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. Those restrictions, at a site Israelis call the Temple Mount, would no doubt stoke further anger and violence as Ramadan begins in early March.

There is considerably more Biden and his administration could do, including continuing the diplomatic effort toward a humanitarian cease-fire that would ease the suffering of Palestinian civilians and allow the remaining hostages to return to their families. He could also do more to demonstrate America’s commitment to the two-state solution, the only path to a lasting peace, by proposing a resolution in the Security Council to that effect. Arab support and a unanimous vote, argues Indyk, would be hard for Israel or the Palestinians to resist.

None of this, of course, may be enough to quiet the global outcry over the war’s toll on Palestinians, or to silence the fierce criticism of Biden by the American left. At the same time, any move to pressure Israel carries political risks as well. This is a moment when there are no good options for Biden politically, so it is a moment when leadership is indispensable. Allowing this conflict to continue unchecked is no longer acceptable, and the United States alone has the power and leverage to do what must be done.