Israel-Hamas war: What happened on day 217?

The United Nations General Assembly voted 143-9 to upgrade the Palestinian's status as a non-member observer state, granting it all but voting rights concerning all activities related to its plenum.

Argentina, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Micronesia, Nauru, Papa New Guinea, Palau, and the United States opposed the resolution.

Among those countries that supported the text were many European Union members,  Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.

Australia supported the resolution, while Canada, Great Britain, and Ukraine abstained.

There are already some 142 countries that recognize Palestine as a state and have full diplomatic relations with it. 

The UNGA vote, which is mostly symbolic, is viewed as an international referendum supporting unilateral Palestinian statehood.

Controversy over Palestinian recognition

Screens show the voting result during the United Nations General Assembly vote on a draft resolution that would recognize the Palestinians as qualified to become a full U.N. member, in New York City, US May 10, 2024. (credit: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Many Western and European countries have believed that full Palestinian statehood recognition and its UN membership should come at the end of a final status agreement that tends to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In light of Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel on October 7 that sparked the Gaza War, several Western countries have reconsidered their position 

Israel immediately attacked the decision, as a prize for terrorism, given that it comes in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7 attack, which sparked the Gaza war.

It also warned that such a step would harm negotiation for the release of the remaining 132 hostages held by Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza.

“The message that the UN is sending to our suffering region: violence pays off,” the Foreign Ministry stated.

“The decision to upgrade the status of Palestinians in the UN is a prize for Hamas terrorists after they committed the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and perpetrated the most heinous sexual crimes the world has seen,” it stated. 

“The decision also provides a tailwind to Hamas amid negotiations for the release of the 132 hostages and humanitarian relief, further complicating the prospects for a deal,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated.

“Israel seeks peace, and peace will only be achieved through direct negotiation between the parties,” the Foreign Ministry said, as it thanked those countries that opposed the resolution, explaining that they stood “on the right side of history and morality.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz posted on X, “The political theater of the United Nations made an artificial, distorted and disconnected decision.”

American Jewish organizations issued a series of rebukes against President Joe Biden over his decision to withhold arms from Israel on Thursday, warning that the move would embolden shared enemies such as Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas.

While some left-wing and progressive organizations backed Biden, normally diplomatic non-partisan groups had harsh criticism for the president's decision not to supply "the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah.”

“We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’ve walked away from its ability to make war in those areas," Biden said during a CNN interview. “We are going to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks like came out in the Middle East recently.”

The Jewish Federations of North America said that while the Jewish community appreciated support for Israel since October 7, such as last month's security aid package, the move "emboldens Hamas and other Iran-backed forces in the region, encourages their delay tactics, and endangers the hostages by weakening Israel’s negotiating hand at a critical juncture."

"In threatening to withhold military aid from Israel, President Biden is wrong," said the Federations.

Aviation ordonancemen stand next to JSOW (Joint Standoff Weapon) (left) and JDAM satellite guided bombs (right) aboard the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier in the northern Gulf April 9, 2003 (credit: YVES HERMAN/REUTERS)

The Federation criticized Biden's claim that “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.”

Ever since October 8, Israel has been grappling with the appropriate response to the horrifying Hamas massacre the day prior – and in the seven months since, we have watched the nation struggle to articulate a clear strategy.

Initially, the government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was resolute in its objective to “destroy” and “eliminate” Hamas, championing this approach as the path to what it called “total victory.”

However, as the conflict has evolved, so too have the stated goals of the IDF, where officers began redefining the objective of the ground offensive, shifting focus toward achieving a new security reality in Gaza as opposed to complete victory.

The new definition involved dismantling Hamas from a well-structured “terror army” to a more disorganized insurgency. 

The aim was no longer the total eradication of Hamas but rather a significant degradation of its military capabilities, manpower, and weaponry to a point where it could no longer exert control over Gaza or pose a substantial threat to the State of Israel.

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip, February 20, 2024 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

What is Israel's objective, and when will it be met?

In other words, Hamas would be weakened to the point that it would no longer have command-and-control systems and the ability to launch large-scale attacks, but would still be a threat that would need to be dealt with, similar to the way the IDF operates in the West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hopes he and US President Joe Biden can overcome their disagreements over the war in Gaza after Biden withheld some weapons from Israel.

"We often had our agreements, but we've had our disagreements. We've been able to overcome them. I hope we can overcome them now, but we will do what we have to do to protect our country," Netanyahu said in an interview on the "Dr. Phil Primetime" show.

Regarding campus protests and those who claim Hamas's actions to be resistance, Netanyahu responded, “Hamas openly declares its goal to wipe out everything you see around here…that’s naked brutal aggression, that’s their doctrine.”

“Iran is saying the same thing: ‘Our goal is to destroy Israel.’ We’re the small Satan.”

“By the way, their goal is to destroy you," he added, "you’re the big Satan; we’re just standing in their way and their right. We’re not merely protecting ourselves, we are, but in so doing, we protect all of free civilization, all of Western culture.”

Signs are displayed in front of Deering Meadow, where an encampment of students are protesting in support of Palestinians, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at Northwestern University campus in Evanston, Illinois, US. April 25, 2024 (credit: REUTERS/Nate Swanson)

Examining the October 7 failures

“I think we’re going to have to give a thorough explanation," Netanyahu said regarding the failures of October 7. "I think we’re going to have to have a thorough examination once the war ends of exactly what happened, how it happened, and who made it happen." 

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Thursday distanced President Biden's remarks on possibly withholding future arms shipments to Israel from the findings of the impending report evaluating the credibility of Israel's assurances it's following international law. 

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said in a Wednesday night interview on CNN. 

Miller parsed through the president's words saying the administration does believe too many civilians have died and Israel needs to do more to minimize civilian harm, however, that's different than a legal question of whether there has been violation of international law. 

The traditional Lag Ba'Omer pilgrimage at Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai's grave at Mount Meron will not take place this year due to the security concerns posed by the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah, the IDF announced on Thursday night.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people head to Mount Meron to mark Lag Ba'Omer, the anniversary of the rabbi's death, at the gravesite.

Lag Ba'Omer is set to take place on the evening of May 25 this year. The holiday is marked by Jews around the world by lighting bonfires and other festivities. Besides for the anniversary of Bar Yochai's death, the day also marks when a plague that swept through the students of the sage Rabbi Akiva ended. The weeks leading up to Lag Ba'Omer are marked with some mourning customs by many Jews, including not listening to live music, not getting haircuts, and not having marriages, although there are varying customs concerning when and how these customs are kept.

A major donor to President Joe Biden's reelection campaign has criticized his handling of the weapons shipments to Israel, calling it a "Bad, bad, bad, decision, on all levels" in a text published online on Thursday.

Haim Saban is an Israeli-American billionaire and long-time supporter of Israel and Jewish political causes and has been a consistent donor to the Democratic party since the 1990s.

Democratic mega-donor Haim Saban wrote an email to Biden's aides Steve Ricchetti & Anita Dunn about Biden's decision to put on hold a weapons shipment to Israel: "Let's not forget there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care about Hamas" pic.twitter.com/HdeI9iOL3W

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 9, 2024

Saban criticized Biden's threat to halt arms shipments to Israel. He asked Biden whether his actions were consistent with the belief that Hamas should be defeated and whether this sent the best message to other US allies in the region.

The cat is out of the bag.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed the flood of media leaks that Washington had halted a shipment of munitions, especially large bombs, to pressure Israel into refraining from a large invasion of Rafah in Gaza.

Hours later, US President Joe Biden went further and said that if Israel ignored this warning shot and fully invaded Rafah anyway, he would halt all offensive weapons shipments (while maintaining the Iron Dome interceptor and other defensive shipments) to the Jewish state.

In a period of six months, Biden has gone from the greatest supporter of Israel militarily in history by sheer numbers of providing billions in military support and by visiting Israel as Hamas rockets still flew over the country, to instigating the greatest military crisis between the countries in decades.

Local authorities in northern Israel are tired of the government ignoring the war that has been going on for seven months on the border with Lebanon, the 80,000 residents who are still evacuated from their homes with no prospect of when they'll return home, and the foot-dragging in passing the budget promised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for strengthening and restoring the north and the plan that will accompany it.

At a meeting of the members of the Confrontation Line Forum, it was decided to announce on Independence Day the establishment of the State of Galilee and a unilateral disengagement from the State of Israel. This extreme step will be accompanied by additional actions that they are planning.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the prime minister's answer at the cabinet meeting to a question by Benny Gantz, as reported by N12. Gantz wondered if the residents would return to their homes on September 1, for the start of the school year, and Netanyahu replied, "What the worst that will happen if they return a few months after September 1?"