Russia attacks Ukrainian hospitals. Israel does the same in Gaza.

all in one united countries At a Security Council meeting this hour, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Monday strongly condemned Russia’s bombing of Ukraine’s largest children’s health facility. The attack was part of a Russian bombing campaign that killed more than 30 Ukrainian civilians.

“We’re here today because Russia … attacked a children’s hospital,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “Even saying that phrase sends a shiver down my spine.”

Thomas-Greenfield went on to directly list Russian attacks on other Ukrainian hospitals during the war. He described Russia’s aggression as a “campaign of terrorism” and classified its attacks on civilian infrastructure as violations of world law. Representatives from alternative countries such as the UK and France echoed Thomas-Greenfield’s condemnation. (Russia’s ambassador declined duty over Monday’s bombings.)

The moral clarity of his comments was impressive to eyewitnesses and world law experts, who compared it to American rhetoric and movements related to Israel. The US stands with Israel militarily and diplomatically as it has repeatedly attacked civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and schools in Gaza since October 7, in a brutal campaign that the Global Court has deemed a laudable genocide.

“I’m very pleased that the US is coming out and vocally condemning all of these actions,” said Jessica Peek, a world law instructor at the University of California, Los Angeles College of Legislation, regarding Thomas-Greenfield’s comments against Russia. he said. “But at the same time, when we’re talking about Palestinian hospitals, or Palestinian schools, or Palestinian children, we don’t find such strong language anywhere else.”

a wonderful addition

The UN Security Council’s near-unanimous complaint about Russia at this hour mirrors any other day in this era, with one glaring residue: America’s response.

The council meeting took place on 5 April, the day after Israel bombed a convoy of backup staff at the International Central Kitchen, and Israel laid siege to al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest health facility, in which Israeli forces Killed 400 Palestinians. Council contributors in turn condemned the attacks, advised Israel to carry out a greater activity on protective backup personnel and civilian infrastructure, and called the attacks a “clear violation of international humanitarian law”.

The US joined in demanding protection for backup personnel. But it certainly stopped short of any complaints about the attack on the Al-Shifa Medical Institute, and put the blame on Hamas. US Ambassador Robert Timber said, “We must not ignore how Hamas’s actions put humanitarian workers at risk.” “Creating tunnels and storing weapons under hospitals is a violation of the laws of war, and we condemn it.”

America’s divergent and asymmetric responses to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have long been a complaint of those with an emphasis on entertainment in both contexts.

Thomas-Greenfield spokesman Nate Evans told The Intercept that the ambassador “has condemned the loss of Palestinian civilian life multiple times in the Security Council,” adding that the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine “are two very different wars.” Evans said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked” before Israel launched its attack following Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller similarly compared the two wars on Monday, saying that Ukrainian forces are “not basing themselves in hospitals, in hospitals, in other civilian sites, in apartment buildings with headquarters,” but were accusing Hamas of doing so. Accused of. The US has consistently reiterated Israel’s contention that Hamas is using hospitals for military operations, a claim for which neither party has provided credible evidence. According to the United Nations, Israel’s war has destroyed Gaza’s scientific sector and killed more than 200 scientific and humanitarian staff, the highest recorded casualty of the war in a generation.

There are certainly significant differences between the status of the wars, including importantly that Russia is an established US rival, while Israel is one of its closest allies and the recipient of billions of dollars in military backup at all times.

However, there are also vague parallels in the human rights abuses and violations of world law in each respective conflict, said Peake, who called the U.S. government’s handling of the conflicts “hypocritical.”

“What we see from the US is a huge difference in how they are choosing to handle their involvement in ending those conflicts,” said Peek, activist director of UCLA’s Assurance Institute for Human Rights.

“On the one hand, you have the United States in Russia and Ukraine, which is playing a very central role in international efforts to end the conflict and for accountability,” he said. “And in the case of Gaza, it is vetoing resolutions, it is undermining statements made by UN bodies. The US is working towards softening those statements so that Israel can come across as a more reasonable party.

hiding behind international relations

Since Israel’s invasion of Gaza, the US has vetoed three separate UN Security Council resolutions that might have called for humanitarian concessions or a quick ceasefire. In contrast, the US has sponsored similar entertainment proposals for Ukraine, many of which have been vetoed by Russia.

In March, the Security Council passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. However, the US abstained from the vote as a result of “some key edits were ignored”, such as a request to add a condemnation of Hamas, Thomas-Greenfield said on the date.

US officials have said they oppose the ceasefire proposals because they do not go beyond Israel’s explicit right to defend itself and argued that diplomatic approaches may be easier said than done by mob condemnation. And the US continues to point to its key role in brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as evidence that it is interested in ending the war in Gaza.

However, as talks have progressed, Israel has been increasing its bombardment of Gaza, recently focusing maximum on Gaza City, where Israeli forces on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of Palestinian civilians. Top Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist that the conflict must continue until Hamas is destroyed, which is an impossible situation.

This hour, Israeli action has killed dozens of people, according to reports citing Palestinian physicians, including at a school near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where at least 27 civilians were killed, mostly women. And there were children. And over the weekend, isolated Israeli moves on alternative colleges in Gaza Town and a UN-run college in Nussirat killed another 20 people. The move also crashed a house in Deir al-Balah, which was once inside Israel’s “humanitarian safe zone” where Palestinians had been told to flee, the Associated Press reported.

The US has not yet punished the intense spate of attacks. On the other hand, on Wednesday, the Biden administration said yes to sending 500-pound bombs to Israel, AP reported. The US blocked munitions in May as Israel prepared to attack Rafah, where thousands of civilians were sheltering.

“It’s not really enough to say ‘we’re pursuing diplomacy’ when we’re talking about any level of civilian casualties, but especially when we’re talking about Gaza,” Peake said. Talking about 10 percent of the population.” A contemporary document from The Lancet, one of the most international leading scientific journals, issued a “conservative estimate” that the Gaza death toll was 186,000.

“If Biden picked up the phone this afternoon to Netanyahu and said, ‘We’re cutting off your arms supplies,’ it would stop,” Peake said. “If the United States said, ‘We are cutting funding to Israel until there is a ceasefire,’ that would end this conflict.”