Netanyahu cancels U.S.-Israel meetings to protest resolution

For the increasingly tense U.S.-Israel relationship, the fallout from passage of the U.N. cease-fire resolution was immediate, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he would not send a planned high-level delegation to Washington for meetings with U.S. officials.

President Joe Biden had requested the meetings to discuss alternatives to a planned Israeli offensive into Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip city where more than 1 million people have sought refuge, an offensive that U.S. officials have said would create a humanitarian disaster.

The United States had vetoed three previous U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for an end to the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, agreeing with Israel’s argument that it would leave Hamas intact and in control of the enclave after it carried out the Oct. 7 assault on Israel.

But on Monday, when the Security Council took up a less strongly worded resolution, calling for a ceasefire for the holy month of Ramadan, the U.S. representative abstained, allowing the measure to pass.

Netanyahu, in a statement, denounced the abstention as “a retreat from the consistent American position since the beginning of the war,” one which “gives Hamas hope that international pressure will enable them to achieve a cease-fire without freeing the hostages.”

In response, he said, the Israeli delegation that was to discuss Rafah would not go to Washington. The practical effect of his decision may be limited —

Netanyahu has said repeatedly that although he would hear out the White House position, the offensive would proceed — but it is still a sharp, public rebuke of Israel’s closest and most powerful ally.

Briefing reporters at the White House, John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, insisted there had been no change in the U.S. position, and said that the United States had abstained, rather than vote for the U.N. measure, chiefly because “this resolution text did not include a condemnation of Hamas.”

“The prime minister’s office seems to be indicating through public statements that we somehow changed here,” Kirby said. “We haven’t.”

As for the canceled Israeli delegation, he added: “We were looking forward to having an opportunity to speak to a delegation later this week on exploring viable options and alternatives to a major ground offensive in Rafah.”

“We felt we had valuable lessons to share,” Kirby said.

“A ground invasion, especially without any type of credible plan, is a mistake given the large number of people, displaced people, that are there at the moment,” Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon press secretarytold reporters.

The U.N. resolution and the U.S. role in it drew angry responses from farright elements of Israel’s government. Itamar BenGvir, the national security minister, called the move “proof that President Biden is not prioritizing Israel and the free world’s victory over terrorism, but rather his own political considerations.”