UN betrays Israel again

This has been another week of shame for the United Nations, which has again voted to reward terrorism and victim-blame Israel. The general assembly has voted overwhelmingly to back the Palestinian bid for full UN membership, a move that Israel’s envoy, Gilad Erdan, has warned will give “the rights of a state to an entity that is already partly controlled” by Hamas. Shamefully, Britain abstained, though that was better than France, which voted in favour. The US, Argentina, the Czech Republic and others did the right thing and voted against. The appalling savagery of October 7, which the Hamas leadership has stated it will repeat as soon as an opportunity arises, made clear what the terror group thinks of living peacefully alongside Israelis. A two-state solution is obviously the long-term aspiration, but is impossible as long as the Palestinian establishment – and not just Hamas – refuses to accept the legitimacy of Israel’s existence, continues to claim “a right of return” to Israel, and pushes a rejectionist vision of Palestinian nationalism “from the river to the sea”. Palestinian membership of the UN will remain out of reach so long as the US continues to veto it. Yet America’s support for its long-standing ally is far less “ironclad” than Joe Biden vowed it would be last month. On Wednesday, the US president threatened to deprive Israel of certain military hardware if “they go into Rafah”. Mr Biden seems to believe that he can micro-manage this conflict, and has delayed the Israelis for months, lengthening the war and reducing the hopes for the hostages. We ought to remember that only one group of people will benefit if the IDF is unable to achieve its strategic aims: Islamists who, given the chance, will destroy all the West stands for.