The Lead

Back UN Secretary General Guterres’s Call for a Gaza Ceasefire Now!

by Dennis Small (EIRNS) — Dec. 11, 2023

The Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres used a Dec. 10 speech at the Doha Conference in Qatar to issue another dramatic call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. He did this because on Dec. 8, the United States once again vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding such a ceasefire. Guterres responded to that vote by saying that “Regrettably the Security Council failed to do it, but that does not make it less necessary. So, I can promise I will not give up.”

Nor has the rest of the world.

The UN General Assembly will meet in an emergency session on Tuesday, Dec. 12, to discuss a new resolution presented by Egypt and Mauritania, also demanding an immediate ceasefire. That resolution already has 103 sponsors—and counting. And 12 out of the 15 current members of the UNSC traveled today to the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, to see for themselves what the horrendous conditions are like there, as a result of Israel’s U.S.-backed bombing and ethnic cleansing spree all across Gaza.

UN Security Council resolutions are binding on member nations, whereas UN General Assembly statements are not. But massive international pressure is building to force the U.S. to change its policy. Pretty nearly the entire world—minus Netanyahu and the British, of course—is lined up against the U.S. government on this matter, and rightly so.

If the entire world is driven to break with a United States committed to endless wars; if the United Nations is not allowed to fulfill its mission of being the guardian of world peace and security; then World War III will be upon us. The United Nations must be made to function; the world cannot descend into the Wild West of the “rules-based order” so beloved of Wall Street and the City of London, since they are the ones making the rules. As Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi asserted to the same Doha Forum to which Guterres spoke: “Israel has created an amount of hatred that will haunt this region that will define generations to come.” The same can be said for world sentiment towards the U.S. and the West more broadly.

Even the Associated Press, not known for being a purveyor of the truth, had to admit in a Dec. 10 article that Israel’s offensive “has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians. About 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced within the besieged territory.” They explained that Netanyahu has gotten away with this because “the United States has lent vital support in recent days by vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution to end the fighting and pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.”

This is the same Netanyahu who recently lectured the heads of government of Spain and Belgium: “History does not favor Jesus Christ over Genghis Khan. History favors the strong.” Are we, as Americans, really prepared this holiday season to have our country go down in history as also choosing Genghis Khan over Jesus Christ?

True: An immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza will not solve the underlying problems in Southwest Asia or the world. But it will stop the genocide of 2.3 million people—and it will allow the world to preserve the minimum of honor and morality it needs to brace itself for the larger tasks ahead.

One of those key tasks is dismantling the military-industrial complex, which is one of the major forces driving the endless wars, as was documented in a very useful article just published by the American Friends Service Committee’s Action Center on Corporate Accountability. The MIC is not limited to the U.S., but is international in scope. And it is not made up only of builders of tanks and missiles, but also the Wall Street and City of London financial interests that actually run the Lockheeds and Raytheons of the world.

It is time to “Retool for Peace,” to take the significant scientific, technological, and machine tool capabilities residing in that sector—including the skilled workers, engineers and scientists, most of whom would prefer using their talents to benefit humanity—and repurpose them for the LaRouche global reconstruction plan that is the only basis for a lasting peace.