Visitors exit a simulation tunnel inaugurated during a rally marking a hundred days since hostages were taken by the Palestinian Hamas movement on October 7, in an initiative of the Israeli Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, outside Tel Aviv's Museum of Art, now informally called the "Hostages Square", on February 12, 2024. - According to Israel, 130 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, including 29 believed to have died, out of a total of 253 people taken captive by Hamas. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
We have just witnessed one of the strangest rationalisations of violence yet seen.
When the United States vetoed a United Nations (UN) resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Washington argued that laying down weapons could jeopardise ongoing peace talks between Israel and Hamas.
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In other words, we have to keep killing each other or else we may not be able to make peace. Crazy… well, that’s what 13 out of the 15 members of the UN Security Council must have thought after they voted in favour of the resolution, only to see the US shoot it down with its veto.
Not exactly covering itself in glory, either, was the United Kingdom, which abstained from voting, agreeing with the US that to have peace, warring parties must continue the slaughter.
All the while, thousands of Palestinians are being killed daily and Gaza is worse than the set of any post-apocalypse movie.
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It does not mean you are a supporter of either side in this grim scenario if you believe the guns should fall silent and all the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October last year should be released.
That is all the resolution said. It should never be that calls for peace are considered wrong.
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