'US abstention a warning to Israel'
By ALLISON HOFFMAN, JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN NEW YORK
"Veteran UN watchers told The Jerusalem Post that the Americans' unwillingness to veto the British resolution, whose text was amended to reflect the concerns of Arab leaders, was unusual.
"The fact that the US didn't veto is a victory, of sorts," said Warren Hoge, a former New York Times UN bureau chief who now works at the International Peace Institute, a think-tank that conducts research on UN affairs and conflict resolution.
The US vetoed an earlier Security Council statement, proposed by Libya, condemning the outbreak of violence in Gaza, objecting to the "unbalanced" equation of Hamas shelling with the Israeli military operation. But Rice arrived in New York apparently committed to seeing through a Security Council measure, despite repeated Israeli insistence that it would not accept any resolution as binding.
"That's the most [the US has] ever done on a resolution the Israelis opposed, which I see as a sign that Israel may have gone too far," said Thomas Weiss, co-director of the UN Intellectual History project and a professor of political science at the City University of New York.
"If you're reading tea leaves, if I were an Israeli diplomat I'd be worried," Weiss told the Post.
Israel's UN ambassador Gabriela Shalev reiterated after the Security Council vote that Israel will only accept a measure that places responsibility for the military action on Hamas's shoulders.
"The international community must focus its attention on the cessation of Hamas's terrorist activity and make clear that a terrorist organization can never be a legitimate leadership," Shalev said.
Hamas also dismissed the resolution, with spokesmen in the Middle East expressing irritation that they were not consulted.
"Nobody consulted Hamas or talked to Hamas. Nobody put Hamas in the picture and yet Hamas is required to accept it. This is unacceptable," Mohammed Nazzal, a senior Hamas official based in Syria, told Al-Arabiya television.
Resolution 1860 passed late Thursday by consensus, with the other 14 members of the Council voting unanimously in favor of the text, which called for "an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza."
It was not drafted under the UN's Chapter Seven, which would have permitted for the creation of an international military force to implement the terms of the resolution.
UN officials said they did not expect the Security Council action to reconvene to discuss further steps in the coming days, with the diplomatic focus now shifting to Cairo, where Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continues efforts to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon intends to travel to the Middle East next week to push for an end to the crisis, said spokesman Farhan Haq."
AP contributed to this report.
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