Concern is rising that an in-principle decision has been made about New Zealand joining AUKUS pillar two, without public understanding or political mandate.
President Joe Biden greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York City in September 2023.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Jordan Tama, American University School of International Service
Israel has historically made statements and taken actions to placate US anger without always following through. But will Biden’s threat to put conditions on aid force Israel to behave differently?
John Strawson, a UK-based researcher on Israeli politics, answers questions about the US decision to abstain from voting on a UN security council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Though the resolution is binding, it is not enforceable under international law. This leaves the work to international negotiators to hammer out the details of an agreement.
Children queue for food aid in the southern Gaza Strip, February 2024.
EPA-EFE/Mohammed Saber
Children are particularly at risk from malnutrition as food supplies in Gaza run out.
People carry some of their belongings as they flee clashes between M23 rebels and government forces near Sake on 7 February 2024.
Photo by Aubin Mukoni /AFP via Getty Images
International pressure on Israel to halt its onslaught in Gaza is mounting. New Zealand has so far chosen to stay on the sidelines, despite allies taking more decisive stands.
Signing up to ‘pillar two’ of the AUKUS alliance sits uneasily with New Zealand’s distinctive worldview – and could aggravate its wider foreign policy challenges.
Devastation: Much of Gaza has been destroyed by Israel’s relentless assault.
SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo
Geopolitical concerns have once again brought the UN security council to a standstill.
Israeli soldiers take positions near the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Dec. 11, 2023. The army is battling Palestinian militants across Gaza in the war ignited by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The best — or least bad — solution to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict involves setting up a transitional administration in Gaza. Here’s how it could work.
Dark clouds over the United Nations in New York.
Adam Gray/AFP via Getty Images)
At the United Nations and elsewhere, the response by the US and Western Europe to events in Israel and Gaza have been out of step with that of governments in Africa, South America and Asia.
Because reform of the current UN Charter is off the table, the only avenue left is to dissolve the charter and draw up a new treaty that limits or abolishes the power of the veto.