New Rift between Biden and Netanyahu

Julian Borger, reporting in the Guardian, suggests that the US abstention from the March 25, 2024, resolution of the UN Security Council proposing a ceasefire for Ramadan, release of hostages, and increased aid to Gaza marks a rift with the Netanyahu government. A post on  March 19, 2024, Writing on the Wall around Gaza, identified concerns about international humanitarian law particularity in the concepts of discrimination and proportionality in the plans of Israel to go ahead with an attack on Rafah.

Increased Separation

The US abstention marks a rift with the Netanyahu government, reflecting mounting frustration in Washington at the prime minister’s defiant insistence Israeli forces will go ahead with the Rafah attack, and at continued Israeli hindrance of humanitarian aid deliveries.

While the resolution demands a temporary ceasefire during the remainder of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, it adds that it should lead to a “lasting sustainable ceasefire”. In a late amendment demanded by the US, the word “lasting” was substituted for “permanent”, to Russian objections. A Russian effort to restore the word “permanent” was defeated by 11 votes to three.

At the last minute on Monday morning, the US asked for an amendment adding a condemnation of Hamas for its attack on Israel on 7 October leading to urgent huddles of diplomats on the chamber floor, but dropped that demand when it became clear the amendment would be resisted. (Borger, n.d.)

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has called on the resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to be implemented, adding that “failure would be unforgivable”.

A social media post by Guterres reads:

The Security Council just approved a long-awaited resolution on Gaza, demanding an immediate ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable. (Israel-Gaza Live: UN Security Council Passes Resolution Calling for Immediate Ceasefire, as US Abstains, n.d.)

The resolution of the UN Security Council sets a challenge for Israel to continue to be aligned with conscientious action to move toward peace and the protection of civilian lives in Gaza.

References

Borger, J. (n.d.). Israel-Gaza live: UN security council passes resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, as US abstains. the Guardian Live. Retrieved March 25, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/25/israel-gaza-live-unrwa-aid-north-gaza-un-security-council-vote-ceasefire-middle-east-latest#top-of-blog 

Israel-Gaza live: UN security council passes resolution calling for immediate ceasefire, as US abstains. (n.d.). the Guardian Live. Retrieved March 25, 2024, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/mar/25/israel-gaza-live-unrwa-aid-north-gaza-un-security-council-vote-ceasefire-middle-east-latest#top-of-blog 

Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict

After World War II, an initiative to develop a rules-based international system was led by likeminded allies and partners. It has produced unprecedented levels of peace, prosperity, and freedom, but it is coming under increasing strain.

Attempts to protect civilians in conflict 

During a day-long open debate, on 23 MAY 2023,  Secretary-General António Guterres warned the Security Council about the need for greater respect for international humanitarian law through action and accountability.

Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), pointed out that development and peace become unachievable when conflicts are characterized by widespread destruction and international humanitarian law violations.  In that regard, all parties engaged in urban warfare must prioritize civilian protection, avoid the use of heavy explosive weapons in populated areas and ensure essential services.  States and other actors must also reduce the risk of food insecurity and invest in practical solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change in conflict-affected regions. (International Laws Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict Not Being Upheld, Secretary-General Warns Security Council, Urging Deadly Cycle Be Broken | UN Press, 2023)

Jeffrey Cimmino and Matthew Kroenig, writing for the Atlantic Council, notes the role of the rules based international system to place limits on the use of military force and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

The rules-based international system was constructed mostly by leading democratic allies at the end of World War II, and was deepened and expanded by many other countries over time. The system is predicated on a set of norms and principles pertaining to global security, the economy, and governance. It consists of: a set of rules encouraging peaceful, predictable, and cooperative behavior among states that is consistent with liberal values and principles; formal institutional bodies, such as the United Nations (UN) and NATO, that serve to legitimize and uphold these rules, and provide a forum to discuss and settle disputes; and the role of powerful democratic states to help preserve and defend the system. In the security realm, the system is characterized by formal alliances in Europe and Asia, in addition to rules that protect state sovereignty and territorial integrity, and place limits on the use of military force and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. (Cimmino, 2020)

Thomas Watkins  reports for the National News UAE  that In the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attacks, Mr Biden put any political differences aside and repeatedly pledged unflinching support for Israel without referencing the civilian deaths in Gaza, where more than 1,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes.

On Wednesday, though, he signalled his support had some limitations, saying Israel should follow “the rules of war”. Israel has already flattened large parts of Gaza and has cut off food and water to the territory's 2.3 million people. (Watkins, 2023)

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch (1993-2022), is a visiting professor at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, comments that if the Israeli government responds to this moment like George W Bush, it will soon follow the route of his government from global sympathy to global outrage.

It is a basic premise of international humanitarian law that war crimes by one side do not justify war crimes by the other. Of necessity, given the passions, charges and counter-charges of most wars, the duty to comply with the rules designed to spare civilians as much as possible the hazards of war is absolute, not contingent on the behavior of opponents.

The Israeli government already seems to be flouting those rules. The declared siege of Gaza, blocking food, water and electricity, violates the duty to allow humanitarian aid to civilians in need, as the people of Gaza certainly are as they suffer massive Israeli bombardment. In the first day of those airstrikes, the Israeli military targeted four large apartment towers. In the past, Israel has purported to justify such attacks because of an ostensible Hamas office somewhere in the complex, but the civilian cost of rendering hundreds of Palestinians homeless is wholly disproportionate. One attack hit a market, reportedly killing dozens. The UN says two hospitals have been hit. (Roth, 2023)

Moustafa Bayoumi, author of the award-winning books How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror, professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York and a contributing opinion writer at the Guardian US, comments that Biden and Zelenskiy support a war they say was ‘unprovoked’ but a defenseless population will pay for media misinformation. Bayoumi asks “What exactly counts as a provocation?”

Not, apparently, the large number of settlers, more than 800 by one media account, who stormed al-Aqsa mosque on 5 October. Not the 248 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces or settlers between 1 January and 4 October of this year. Not the denial of Palestinian human rights and national aspirations for decades.

One can, in fact must, see such actions as provocations without endorsing further murderous violence against civilians. But if you watched only US news, you would be likely to presume that Palestinians always act while Israel only reacts. You might even think that Palestinians are the ones colonizing the land of Israel, no less. And you probably believe that Israel, which holds ultimate control over the lives of 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and yet denies them the right to vote in Israeli elections, is a democracy.

To be considered a political being you must at the very least be considered a human being. Who gets to count as human? “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” Israel’s defense minister Yoav Gallant said. Human animals? How can such language and an announced policy of collective punishment against all the residents of Gaza be seen by Israel’s supporters in the United States or elsewhere as defensible? Let’s be clear: Gallant’s language is not the rhetoric of deterrence. It’s the language of genocide. (Bayoumi, 2023)

The armed conflict that is threatening to kill many civilians in Gaza requires that we identify some of the international rules intended to protect civilians that will likely be violated.

References

Bayoumi, M. (2023, October 11). The double standard with Israel and Palestine leaves us in moral darkness | Moustafa Bayoumi. The Guardian. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/11/israel-palestine-war-biden-zelenskiy 

Cimmino, J. (2020, December 16). Strategic context: The rules-based international system. Atlantic Council. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/atlantic-council-strategy-paper-series/strategic-context-the-rules-based-international-system/ 

International Laws Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflict Not Being Upheld, Secretary-General Warns Security Council, Urging Deadly Cycle Be Broken | UN Press. (2023, May 23). UN Press. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15292.doc.htm 

Roth, K. (2023, October 11). The attack on Israel has been called a '9/11 moment'. Therein lies a cautionary tale | Kenneth Roth. The Guardian. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/11/israel-hamas-attack-gaza-9-11-cautionary-tale 

Watkins, T. (2023, October 12). The Middle East crisis Joe Biden hoped he would avoid. The National. Retrieved October 13, 2023, from https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/2023/10/12/the-middle-east-crisis-joe-biden-hoped-he-would-avoid/ 

See Judge Act: CST Security and Economics of Climate Change

 Kevin Moynihan of KM Productions, a Halifax based fully equipped production company, shares “Laudato Si’ + 5: See, Judge, Act”. This review of our progress engaging with the 2015 Encyclical of Pope Francis, “Laudato Si”,under the Catholic Social Teaching tradition of See, Judge, and Act offers a reminder of the need for action on Water Shortage, Climate Change, and Loss of Biodiversity and hope in sharing the work of individuals and organizations involved in taking action today.

 

Sir David Attenborough, renowned British naturalist and broadcaster, presented a warning that the world risks ‘collapse of everything’ without strong climate action to the UN Security Council.

 

“If we continue on our current path, we will face the collapse of everything that gives us our security: food production, access to fresh water, habitable ambient temperature, and ocean food chains,” he said, adding “and if the natural world can no longer support the most basic of our needs, then much of the rest of civilization will quickly break down... “People today all over the world now realize this is no longer an issue which will affect future generations,” he said.  “It is people alive today, and, in particular, young people, who will live with the consequences of our actions.”2

Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, spoke, in a recent interview, about how private finance is increasingly aligned behind achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Climate change is an existential threat. We all recognize that, and there’s increasing urgency around it. But the converse is, if you are making investments, coming up with new technologies, changing the way you do business, all in service of reducing and eliminating that threat, you are creating value. And what we have seen increasingly, spurred initially by the Sustainable Development Goals, accelerated by Paris, and then by social movements and governments, is societies putting tremendous value on achieving net zero. Companies, and those who invest in them and lend to them, and who are part of the solution, will be rewarded. Those who are lagging behind and are still part of the problem will be punished.3

We have evidence to see and judge the likely impact of the climate emergency on our health and welfare. Catholic Social Teaching and economic common sense underlie our movement to avoid catastrophe in the lives of our children and grandchildren.

 

References

1	(n.d.). KM Productions. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from http://www.kmproductions.ca/
2	(2021, February 23). World risks 'collapse of everything' without strong climate action .... Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/02/1085452
3	(2021, January 21). Mark Carney: Investing in net-zero climate solutions creates value .... Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/mark-carney-investing-net-zero-climate-solutions-creates-value-and-rewards

 

 

Disconnected from the need for maximum effort

 

In his book “A Good War”, Seth Klein demonstrates how wartime thinking and community efforts can be repurposed today for Canada's own Green New Deal.

 

He has found a politics of disconnect is hampering our progress in addressing the climate emergency.

 

"We elect governments that promise climate action, they deliver underwhelming and contradictory policies, and then get replaced by right-wing governments that undo what little progress we’ve seen."1

Damian Carrington, environment editor at the Guardian, reports that CO2 emissions hit a new record despite Covid-19 lockdowns. Scientists calculate that emissions must fall by half by 2030 to give a good chance of limiting global heating to 1.5C, beyond which hundreds of millions of people will face more heatwaves, droughts, floods and poverty.

WMO report on atmospheric CO2

 

Climate-heating gases have reached record levels in the atmosphere despite the global lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has said.

“The lockdown-related fall in emissions is just a tiny blip on the long-term graph. We need a sustained flattening of the curve,” said Petteri Taalas, the WMO secretary-general. “We breached the global [annual] threshold of 400ppm in 2015 and, just four years later, we have crossed 410ppm. Such a rate of increase has never been seen in the history of our records… CO2 remains in the atmosphere for centuries. The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration was 3m-5m years ago, when the temperature was 2-3C warmer and sea level was 10-20 metres higher than now. But there weren’t 7.7 billion [human] inhabitants.”2

In August 2016, Bill McKibben wrote that we are under attack from climate change—and our only hope is to mobilize like we did in WWII.

 

War on climate change

For starters, it’s important to remember that a truly global mobilization to defeat climate change wouldn’t wreck our economy or throw coal miners out of work. Quite the contrary: Gearing up to stop global warming would provide a host of social and economic benefits, just as World War II did. It would save lives. (A worldwide switch to renewable energy would cut air pollution deaths by 4 to 7 million a year, according to the Stanford data.) It would produce an awful lot of jobs. (An estimated net gain of roughly two million in the United States alone.)3

Carbon and methane now represent the deadliest enemy of all time, the first force fully capable of harrying, scattering, and impoverishing our entire civilization.

 

References

 

1	Klein, Seth. (2020) A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency. Toronto, ON:ECW Press.
2	(2020, November 23). Climate crisis: CO2 hits new record despite Covid-19 lockdowns. Retrieved November 24, 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/23/climate-crisis-co2-hits-new-record-despite-covid-19-lockdowns
3	(2016, August 15). We Need to Literally Declare War on Climate Change | The .... Retrieved November 17, 2020, from https://newrepublic.com/article/135684/declare-war-climate-change-mobilize-wwii

Human activity is trouble for climate, water, biodiversity, and other mammals.

The apparent complacency of many North Americans about what is happening to our common home, the earth should be shaken by scientific studies that indicate that human activity is driving mammal extinction.

Best friend of humans

This potential “great extinction” is connected to the big three concerns of the UN (2013) and Pope Francis (2015) of Climate Change, Water Shortages, and Biodiversity Loss. Kay Vandette, Earth.com staff writer, discusses how human activity is driving a mammal extinction crisis.

Researchers from Aarhus University and the University of Gothenburg conducted a study examining the rates of extermination currently underway.
By their calculations, unless conservation becomes a top priority, during the next five decades so many species will become extinct that it will take three to five million years for evolution to reach current biodiversity levels.
The results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that evolution will not be able to keep up

The conclusion that Climate Change, Water Shortages, and Biodiversity Loss, will have growing Impacts on global business is contained in a UN Report that quotes UN Under Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

"The report speaks to the reality of climate change and natural resource scarcities and outlines how more creative decisions by the private sector with longer term horizons may assist in meeting these challenges. It makes the case that whether it be in water saving, or climate-proofing infrastructure, the world is going to look for solutions that in turn will drive corporate competitiveness, reputational risk and a transition to an inclusive green economy,' added Mr. Steiner.
The new report is based on UNEP's Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5); the UN's most comprehensive assessment of the state of the global environment. According to that report, human pressures on the global environment mean that several critical environmental thresholds are approaching, or have already been surpassed, beyond which abrupt changes to the life-support functions of the planet could occur.

The encyclical letter LAUDATO SI’ of Pope Francis on care for our common home notes our complacency at the conclusion of Chapter One “WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR COMMON HOME” that focuses on three areas; (1) Pollution and Climate Change, (2) Water Shortages, and (3) Biodiversity Loss.

At the same time we can note the rise of a false or superficial ecology which bolsters complacency and a cheerful recklessness. As often occurs in periods of deep crisis which require bold decisions, we are tempted to think that what is happening is not entirely clear. Superficially, apart from a few obvious signs of pollution and deterioration, things do not look that serious, and the planet could continue as it is for some time. Such evasiveness serves as a licence to carrying on with our present lifestyles and models of production and consumption. This is the way human beings contrive to feed their self-destructive vices: trying not to see them, trying not to acknowledge them, delaying the important decisions and pretending that nothing will happen.

References

(2018, October 16). Human activity driving mammal extinction crisis • Earth.com. Retrieved October 20, 2018, from https://www.earth.com/news/human-activity-mammal-extinction/
(2013, June 21). Climate Change, Water Shortages, Biodiversity Loss, will have .... Retrieved October 20, 2018, from http://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/climate-change-water-shortages-biodiversity-loss-will-have-growing
(2015, May 24). Laudato si' (24 May 2015) - Vaticano. Retrieved October 20, 2018, from http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html