Secretary-general Antonio Guterres’ self-aggrandising call for a ceasefire in Gaza only brings the UN into further disrepute, offering more evidence for those who claim the top bureaucrat in New York is providing cover for Hamas.
Guterres broke bureaucratic glass on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter, for the first time in decades, to bring to the attention of the Security Council “any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.
After all the calamities since the UN was established in 1945 – the genocide in Rwanda, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, multiple Middle Eastern wars – Guterres has picked a regional conflict to make history, highlighting what some see as his bias in favour of an organisation that has caused the deaths of thousands.
From a practical point of view, Guterres’s move amounts only to a dog whistle to pro-Hamas political forces.
It will do nothing to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza, given the Security Council – which includes the US and Britain on one side, and Russia and China on the other – will not agree to any call for a ceasefire.
Guterres, prone to hysterics given his recent claim the world was “boiling” from climate change, cited the “severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza” if Israel continues its methodical eradication of Hamas cells within Gaza.
No one doubts the immense suffering, death and chaos within Gaza following the events of October 7.
But what did Hamas think was going to happen after it unleashed the equivalent of more than a dozen 9/11s on Israel?
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza,” Guterres declared. But no one is safe in Israel either.
Surrounded by autocracies that hate it, even deny its right to exit, Israel naturally lashing out at its enemies to ensure its survival, just as Western nations bombed Germany and Japan to bring about an end to World War II, for the sake of global peace.
A ceasefire would give Hamas, which appears to have grievously miscalculated, time to regroup and plan further attacks.
Israel’s operations have made clear progress, methodically wiping out Hamas commanders. Israel is in the best position to judge the appropriate response to the horrors of October 7, given it has to live with the consequences.
Squawking about Israel’s supposed transgressions of the laws of war, which were written decades ago before such state-backed terrorism was even imagined, ignores the existential realities Israel faces.
If Guterres doesn’t agree with Israel’s right to exist, then he’s forgetting the role of the UN itself in 1947, which agreed to the partition of Palestine which foreshadowed the creation of Israel a year later.
Israel, like any liberal democracy, isn’t perfect. But it’s vastly superior to the primitive terrorist outfit that still, just, runs Gaza.
Even the Arab nations are secretly hoping Hamas evaporates in the Israeli bombardment.
Whatever the wrongs of decades ago, the UN, as a body supposed founded on democratic principles, should give the benefit of the doubt to the only bona fide liberal democracy in the Middle East on a question of its very survival.
More Coverage
Female hostages ‘shown torture videos of male captives’
Four freed female Israeli hostages have described their mistreatment in captivity as Israel waits to see if Hamas will keep its word and free three captives on Saturday.
‘Serious challenge’: Trump moves to upend global trading system
Mark Vaile, the man who negotiated Australia’s 2004 FTA with the US, says Donald Trump’s move to embrace reciprocal tariffs represents a serious challenge to the global system of free trade.