Gaza is being offered a big historic chance

The UN Security Council has approved a landmark American-sponsored resolution which just may give long suffering Gaza its final chance for peace and reconstruction.

- John J Metzler

The US resolution enshrines Washington’s 20-point plan for Gaza; the current ceasefire, the establishment of a Board of Peace and backs the creation and deployment of an international stabilisation force for the war-ravished territory. There were 13 votes for, none against, and two abstentions, Russia and China.

Even its most persistent political critics conceded this was a big win for the Trump administration’s tireless Middle-East diplomacy. Moreover marshalling the US drafted resolution through the political maze of the long deadlocked 15-member Security Council was a feat of masterful diplomacy by the new US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz.

While France and Britain supported the American effort, there was a lurking threat from other veto holders such as Russia and China. Though there was a credible threat of a Russian veto, in the end both Moscow and Beijing abstained thus clearing the path for passage. American Council allies such as Denmark, Greece, Panama, Slovenia, and South Korea, backed the resolution too. Other countries such as Algeria, long a supporter of radical Palestinian movements, joined in at the end, as did Pakistan and Somalia.