The West Did Not Desire War in Ukraine and Israel
Photo: pixabay.com
Western countries did not vote against the “resolution for stopping military actions and attacks between Israel and Palestine”, as the post claims, they just did not support Russia’s resolution to condemn violence and terrorism of civilians, because it did not mention HAMAS attacks and killings of 1,400 civilians in Israel. The post does not want to see the facts but has the sole purpose of accusing the West of the military conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and between Israel and Palestine
We are fact-checking a post on Facebook (screenshot here) telling several lies about the Israel – Hamas conflict.
As many wished for a war between Russia and Ukraine, now the West is desperately wishing for a war between Israel and Palestine.
Russia in the Security Council proposed a Resolution on stopping military actions and attacks between Israel and Palestine as well as sending UN troops.
The Resolution was not accepted.
5 countries voted in FAVOR – Russia, China, United Arab Emirates, Mozambique and Gabon.
AGAINST voted USA, United Kingdom, France and Japan.
In modern times it is quite clear who wants peace and who wants war!, says the post.
The post incorrectly claims that the West wished for a war between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine. The West did not attack Ukraine or Israel. On the contrary, Western countries condemned Russian aggression and the terrorist attacks of HAMAS, and even called for calming tensions between both Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine.
Early in the morning of 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine although constantly denying that it would attack.
Russia has been opposing Ukraine’s move towards EU and NATO membership for a long time. Towards the end of 2021, Russia started deploying a large number of troops on the Ukrainian border, while constantly refusing to attack. After that Russian President Vladimir Putin terminated the peace agreement for the East in 2015 and recognized as independent the regions controlled by the rebels. Initiating the Russian invasion on 24 February, Putin accused NATO of jeopardizing the historic future of the nation.
The facts say that back in December 2021, the Western leaders called Russia to calm tensions down and promised to support Ukraine in case of any kind of threat from Moscow.
The US and EU expressed a great deal of concern and on many occasions attempted to prevent the attack. With the Resolution adopted in December 2021, the Members of the European Parliament called Russia to retrieve its troops threatening Ukraine and specified that every aggression from Moscow will have a high economic and political price.
On 22 February 2022, leading MEPs strongly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent entities.
Two days later – on 24 February – Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine. The EU responded with a series of sanctions against Russia as well as initiatives to support Ukraine.
Regarding the Israel-HAMAS conflict, on 7th October the radical Palestinian group HAMAS with a surprising offensive initiated an unprecedented attack on Israel.
More than 1,400 Israelis were killed, while the Israeli military says more than 203 soldiers and civilians, including women and children, were taken to Gaza as hostages.
More than 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in air and artillery strikes carried out by the Israelis in response, according to the HAMAS-run Health Ministry in Gaza. Israeli troops have also massed along the Gaza boundary and Palestinians are bracing themselves for major ground operations.
France, Britain, the US, and NATO have urged Israel to minimize civilian Palestinian deaths.
On 12 October, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime-minister Rishi Sunak, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel to show mercy to Palestinian civilians.
Israel has the right to defend itself by eliminating terrorist groups such as HAMAS through targeted action, but preserving civilian populations is the duty of democracies, said Macron in a special TV address according to EU Observer.
Throughout history, the US has tried on several occasions to reach peace between Israel and Palestine. Writing about the history of the conflict between these two countries, the BBC covers the peace talks attempt, brokered by the US.
Israel-Palestinian peace talks were held on and off between 1990 and 2010, interspersed with outbreaks of violence. A series of secret talks in Norway became the Oslo Peace Process, forever symbolized by a ceremony on the White House lawn in 1993 presided over by President Bill Clinton.
“Cracks” soon appeared, though, with then-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu calling Oslo a mortal threat to Israel. The Israelis accelerated their project to settle Jews in the occupied Palestinian territories. The recently emerged Palestinian militant group HAMAS sent suicide bombers to kill people in Israel and wreck the chances of a deal.
The atmosphere in Israel turned ugly, culminating in Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination by a Jewish extremist on 4 November 1995.
In the 2000s attempts were made to revive the peace process – including in 2003 when a roadmap was devised by world powers with the ultimate goal of a two-state solution, but this was never implemented.
The peace efforts finally stalled in 2014, when talks failed between Israelis and Palestinians in Washington.
The peace plan – prepared by the US when Donald Trump was president – was called “the deal of the century” by Prime-minister Netanyahu but was dismissed by the Palestinians as one-sided, BBC writes.
According to the post we are fact-checking, Western countries, wanted а war between Israel and Palestine, which was supposedly evident from the way they voted in the UN for Russia’s Resolution “on stopping military actions and attacks between Israel and Palestine and returning UN troops”.
The post shares news from AP about how the UN Security Council rejected Russia’s Resolution. As specified in the news on the Russian Resolution:
Violence and terrorism against civilians is condemned, but no mention is made of HAMAS, whose surprise attack killed 1,400 Israelis and was the worst Jewish massacre since World War II Nazi Holocaust.
Only four countries joined Russia in voting for the resolution – China, the United Arab Emirates, Mozambique, and Gabon. Four countries voted against it – the United States, Britain, France and Japan. The other six countries abstained. Adoption needs a minimum of nine “yes” votes in the 15-member Council.
Britain’s UN ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said it would be “unconscionable for this Council to ignore the largest terror attack in Israel’s history”.
Hence, Western countries did not vote against the “Resolution on stopping military activities and attacks between Israel and Palestine”, as the post claims, but did not support Russia’s Resolution to condemn violence and terrorism of civilians, because it did not mention the attack of HAMAS and the killings of 1,400 civilians in Israel.
Overall, the posts contain several untruths and manipulations regarding the military conflicts between Ukraine and Russia and Israel and Palestine. The post does not consider the facts, but has the sole purpose of accusing the West as the guilty party, although history says otherwise. Western countries did not attack Ukraine, nor Israel. In addition, the West – under no circumstances – wants war. On the contrary, it condemns violence and killing of civilians and supports the right of countries to defend their territorial integrity. Therefore, based on all this, the post we fact-checked is assessed as incorrect.
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