The rift between Israel and the United States widened dramatically Monday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off a trip by a top-level delegation to Washington to protest the U.S. failure to block a new U.N. Security Resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in the war.
The resolution passed in New York on a 14-0 vote after U.S. U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield broke with past practice and declined to exercise the U.S. veto.
Mr. Netanyahu said the delegation was being called back because the Biden administration was “retreating” from its “principled position” that any cease-fire resolution must include language demanding the release of an estimated 100 hostages held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The delegation was dispatched to hold senior-level talks on U.S. and Israeli differences over a looming Israeli military attack on Hamas forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. President Biden had asked Mr. Netanyahu to send the interagency team when the two men talked by phone March 18.
Mr. Biden and his aides have said they see no way the attack can proceed without massive casualties to the over 1 million Palestinian civilians who live there or have taken refuge in the city from fighting elsewhere in the densely populated enclave.
It was not immediately clear what brought about the shift in the U.S. position at the United Nations.
On Friday, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield had argued the proposed text “fails to support sensitive diplomacy in the region. Worse, it could actually give Hamas an excuse to walk away from the deal on the table.”
“We should not move forward with any resolution that jeopardizes the ongoing negotiations,” she said.
At the White House Monday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby confirmed the Israeli delegation’s cancellation but said the U.S. abstention Monday at the U.N. was not a shift in policy.
“There is no reason for this to be seen as some sort of escalation,” he said. “Nothing has changed about our policy. We still want to see a cease-fire. We still want to get hostages all over. And we still want to see more humanitarian assistance get in to the people of Gaza.”
Mr. Kirby said President Biden is “perplexed” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceling a trip by top officials to the U.S. in protest of the abstention. He said it was a non-binding resolution so it doesn’t have an impact on Israel‘s ability to wage war on Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was in Washington on a separate trip for senior-level talks this week. It was not clear if Mr. Gallant was being summoned home as well.
The U.S. vetoed three previous Security Council resolutions demanding a cease-fire in Gaza, most recently on Feb. 20. That Arab-backed resolution was supported by 13 council members with one abstention, reflecting the overwhelming support for a cease-fire.
Russia and China vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in late October calling for pauses in the fighting to deliver aid, the protection of civilians and a halt to arming Hamas.