We applaud President Obama for America’s “no” vote in connection with the UN Human Rights Council resolution adopting the report of an inquiry commission on last summer’s Operation Protective Edge. The resolution is sharply critical of Israel and goes even further in this regard than the report itself, omitting references to Israel’s attempts to minimize civilian casualties or Hamas’s provocations. Indeed, Israel comes off in the resolution as a bullying colossus with no justification for taking on a defenseless Hamas.
The U.S. vote was the sole negative one cast (India, Kenya, Ethiopia, Macedonia, and Paraguay abstained). Forty-one countries voted in favor of adopting the report, including all members of the European Union, although Britain, France, and Germany expressed disappointment that the resolution did not refer to possible Hamas war crimes as the report did.
The resolution was a carefully structured hit job and clearly leads the reader to certain conclusions about Israeli culpability without actually making accusations. As noted, the U.S. was (once again) the only country to stand with Israel. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Israel remains just one vote away from complete international isolation.