The Israeli ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, categorically ruled out the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza on Monday, arguing that a cessation of hostilities now would amount to denying the Jewish state its “right to self-defense”.
“A ceasefire now means tying our hands and preventing us from defending ourselves, because the meaning of our self-defense is the eradication of Hamas (…) This is the only way to ensure that these atrocities would not happen again”, Erdan told La Voce di New York after the UN Security Council meeting.
When questioned on the ways to reduce the catastrophic toll of civilian casualties in Gaza, the Israeli diplomat again pointed the finger at Palestinian militants. “If they allow the citizens of Gaza to evacuate temporarily (…) certainly it can happen,” he said. “But Hamas wants the opposite, Hamas wants to increase the number of civilian casualties in Gaza (…) The sole responsibility for everything that is happening in Gaza is only on the shoulders of Hamas.”
Finally, Ambassador Erdan emphasized how so far the UN Security Council has behaved “more like Chamberlain than Churchill” – referring to the failed strategy of appeasement the former had with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, who is considered the mastermind of the Holocaust.
“We are not facing only Hamas”, he said. “It’s Nazi Iran,together with their terror proxies who are surrounding Israel (…) This is an existential threat against Israel, therefore we need to eliminate this threat, and the only way is eradicating Hamas’ terror capabilities”.
