On November 15, after long negotiations and four failed attempts to reach consensus, the United Nations Security Council finally adopted a resolution on the so-called “Israel-Palestine crisis.”

However, Resolution 2712, adopted with 12 votes in favour, zero against and three abstentions (from Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), did little more than give Israel the green light to continue its genocide War against Gaza.

The resolution called for the establishment of “urgent and extended humanitarian breaks and corridors” in Gaza for “a sufficient number of days” to allow “full, rapid, safe and unhindered access for UN agencies and partners.” It called for “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas and other groups, especially children, as well as ensuring immediate humanitarian access.” And ostensibly to protect the Palestinian civilians who are bearing the brunt of the Israeli offensive, it also called on “all parties to refrain from depriving the civilian population in Gaza of basic services and assistance essential to their survival, in unison.” with international humanitarian law”.

ambassador Vanessa Frazier Malta, which drafted the text, even went so far as to say that votes for the resolution would “result in real human life.” The lives of thousands of children, civilians and heroic humanitarian workers.”

Of course, it is impossible to say whether the resolution helped save “real lives” at all, since it did not explicitly call on Israel to stop killing Palestinians or condemn its indiscriminate bombing and lawless siege of the Gaza Strip.

In fact, the mere call for “humanitarian breaks and corridors” was nothing more than an admission that the UN Security Council is perfectly willing to allow Israel to continue its ethnic cleansing project in Gaza as long as it agrees to occasionally stop bombing and give in safe passage to some support trucks, presumably to improve appearance.

This is unacceptable.

Israel is openly committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Gaza since October 7th. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself has warned that civilians are being killed in Gaza at an “unprecedented and unprecedented scale in any conflict” he has seen since he took office in 2017. Israeli bombardment has affected most of the civilian infrastructure – including hospitals, schools and much of the homes – in the north of the besieged enclave reduced to rubble, and the south is not faring much better. The World Health Organization said more people in Gaza could die from disease than from bombings if the health system is not urgently repaired.

And yet the powerful U.N. Security Council seems unable to offer Gaza’s long-suffering Palestinians anything more than a few aid trucks and an empty demand that Israel occasionally take a short break from killing them indiscriminately.

However, even this weakened and useless resolution was a step too far for Israel’s imperial patron, the United States, which, while not rejecting it outright, still refused to vote for it.

Following the vote, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda made comments Thomas Greenfieldexplained in an official statement that her country did not vote “yes” because the text “did not condemn Hamas or affirm the right of all member states to protect their citizens from terrorist attacks” – meaning Israel’s “right” to kill Palestinians were left unpunished if not explicitly affirmed.

This attitude, which places Israel’s real and imagined “rights” at the center of every discussion and action regarding Israel-Palestine, even as Israel actively massacres thousands of Palestinian women and children, is an integral part of the attitude of the United States and the entire West Strategy to “overcome” the centuries-old conflict.

Actually, Thomas GreenfieldThe statement on Resolution 2712 is a prime example of how the United States responds to any attempt to censure or censure its favorite settler colony: undermining the truth, defending the indefensible, and protecting Israel at all costs.

In her statement, Thomas-Greenfield spoke about Hamas’ attacks on southern Israel on October 7 and called on Security Council members to condemn the Palestinian armed group that “shot civilians, burned families alive and executed children.” Although she called for condemnation of Hamas’s “barbaric” attack, she made no mention of the undoubtedly equally barbaric – or perhaps even more barbaric, given its scale – Israel’s shelling and siege of the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed more than 15,000 people , including a record number of children.

She did not mention, for example, how Israel’s decision to cut off fuel, water and medical supplies to Gaza’s 2.3 million people, in clear violation of international law, led to the deaths of many patients, including premature babies, in al-Shifa has run other hospitals in Gaza.

She also refrained from discussing Israel’s targeted attacks on residential buildings in overcrowded refugee camps, on ambulance convoys or on UN schools housing displaced civilians. She did not describe any of these acts, which denigrated international law and killed thousands of innocent people, as “barbaric acts of terrorism.”

In the same statement, Thomas-Greenfield also tried to use a few understated words to exonerate Israel from the carnage it has wrought in Gaza since October 7.

“Let us be clear,” she said: “Hamas started this conflict.”

Of course, this phrase conveniently ignores Israel’s long and bloody history of colonial robbery and illegal occupation, which gave birth to Hamas in the first place.

Not content with muddying the situation to the point of shielding Israel from any meaningful criticism or sanction, Thomas-Greenfield also did something equally sinister in her statement: she implied that the Palestinians and the Israelis were suffering equally and that the US cares about the Palestinians as much as it cares about the Israelis.

“The loss of every single innocent life is devastating,” she said without a hint of irony. “And we mourn all those who were killed – Israelis and Palestinians, men, women, children and the elderly. People of all nationalities and faiths.”

From start to finish, this statement is a perfect example of the West’s standard response to Israel’s undeniable and indefensible crimes against the Palestinians: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Thomas-Greenfield’s statement is undoubtedly a good example of well-calculated and expertly executed political deception, but it is hardly unique or exceptional.

In fact, since the start of this latest war on Gaza, President Joe Biden, his top diplomat Antony Blinken and their allies across Europe have been following the same pattern as Thomas-Greenfield, engaging in angry double-talk about Palestine.

Western leaders and diplomats have concealed, doubted and distorted facts they deemed unsuitable for public consumption in order to influence media narratives and deceive unsuspecting viewers, assuage the West’s collective conscience and enable Israel’s murderous agenda .

For example, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who claims that Europeans are “defenders of the free world,” regularly engages in double-talk about Palestine.

After a massive explosion at Arab al-Ahli Hospital In Gaza City, hundreds of displaced civilians were killed and almost as many were maimed, von der Leyen said explained: “In this tragic hour, we must all redouble our efforts to protect civilians from the fury of this war.”

Once she was done foregoing the performative empathy, she turned the speech on its head and began talking about Israel’s “right to self-defense in accordance with international law.”

No doubt aware of how wrong, contradictory and hypocritical that sounded, she added: “There is no contradiction in standing in solidarity with Israel and responding to the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people.”

Unfortunately, that exists – and the refusal to acknowledge that obvious contradiction is simply evil.

For decades, countless Western leaders have supported Israel’s “right” to unleash unimaginable terror in Gaza (and the occupied West Bank), in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions.

This time the situation is so dire that UN experts are sounding the alarm about certain governments’ “support for Israel’s strategy of waging war against the besieged population of Gaza and the failure of the international system to mobilize to prevent it.” genocide“.

Enough is enough.

The West must respect the rules-based order and work with the international community to stop Israel’s illegal behavior in Gaza.

This is the fifth time Israel has launched a military offensive in Gaza since then 2007and each campaign was rife with war crimes and brazen attempts by the West to undermine, justify and ultimately normalize the deaths of Palestinians.

There is no telling how many more lives must be lost in Gaza and the occupied West Bank before Thomas-Greenfield, Biden, von der Leyen and other Western actors make a humane and conscious attempt to end the spread of lies and support of Israeli propaganda to stop.

It is time for the United States and Europe to drop the cruel pretense and condemn the genocide taking place in Palestine.

In case it needs repeating, Israel does not have an indelible right to kill Palestinians.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.