Gaza conflict offered Biden administration a chance to extricate itself from ‘Ukraine fiasco’

The timing of the latest spiral of the Palestine-Israel conflict gave the Biden administration an opportunity to extricate itself from the ‘Ukraine fiasco,’ Dr. Linwood Tauheed, Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told Sputnik.

”The situation as the Ukrainians lose the war and [President Volodymyr] Zelensky is finally admitting that is what’s happening was seen as an albatross [around Biden’s neck], another Vietnam, if you will… For Biden, it would be a loss to support a losing Ukraine... And so it became very obvious that the Biden administration wanted to get out of that fiasco. The Israeli-Gaza situation came at a time when that support could be moved from Ukraine onto Gaza,” Dr.Tauheed noted.

The economics expert stressed that “support for the [US] weapons industry” would be maintained in the hopes of boosting Biden’s dismal approval ratings.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the military operation in the Gaza Strip will last for many more months, as well as warned Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement against expanding the scale of its attacks on Israel.

"The campaign in the Gaza Strip will last for many more months," Netanyahu told a press conference.

He added that the Israeli operation will last until all its goals, including the destruction of the Hamas movement, are achieved.

"If Hezbollah expands the scale of the confrontation, we will carry out strikes that neither Hezbollah nor Iran can imagine," Netanyahu stated.

Earlier this month, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the United States agrees with the Israeli assessment that the ongoing conflict in Gaza could go on for several months, adding that it is important that Israeli strikes become more targeted and precise.

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❗️ The Czech Republic's Permanent Representative will skip the Russia-requested UN Security Council meeting on the shelling of Belgorod by the Ukrainian troops which used Czech weapons to kill civilians.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said that they "refuse to be summoned anywhere by Russia".

❗️ Ukraine’s strikes on Belgorod were deliberate terrorist attacks, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said.

❗️ Russia has reports that the UK, US advisers were involved in planning attacks on Belgorod, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, stated.

❗️ Russia’s surprised by the silence of the UN Secretary General on deadly attacks on Belgorod, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, emphasized.

❗️ The Czech Republic's envoy to the UN declined to take part in the UNSC meeting “out of cowardice,” Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, stressed.

❗️ The number of people killed as a result of the shelling of Russia’s Belgorod by the Ukrainian armed forces increased to 20 people, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said.

🇷🇸 Polling stations opened on Saturday in Serbia for rerun elections to fill parliament and the municipal offices in Belgrade, the election commission said.

The Republican Election Commission (REC), in connection with the complaints about the course of the December 17 ballot, has scheduled a repeat voting in the parliamentary election at 35 of about 8,300 polling stations in Serbia, while Belgrade's election commission is holding a repeat voting in the municipal election at three more polling places.

The voting is taking place from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time (06:00 to 19:00 GMT), with over 19,500 people eligible to vote.

When the polling places close, their officials must submit protocols to the REC within 96 hours. The REC will then accept complaints and approve the preliminary results of the election within another 72 hours.

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❗️ The number of people killed in Ukraine's strike on the Russian city of Belgorod has risen to 21, including three children, Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

"To great sorrow, the number of dead has increased to 21 people, three of them are children," Gladkov wrote on Telegram.

He also added that 110 people, including 17 children, received injuries, with 30 of them being in serious condition.

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🇷🇸 Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that his Serbia Must Not Stop coalition had won repeat parliamentary and municipal elections.

"At all voting stations, absolutely all, both at the city and at the republican level… the Serbia Must Not Stop coalition won a very convincing victory," Vucic stated.

According to his preliminary data, Serbia Must Not Stop received 69.5% of the votes, while the pro-European opposition coalition Serbia Against Violence got only 12%.

Vucic also added that Serbia would continue its path to the European Union while maintaining traditional friendly relations with China and Russia. In addition, Belgrade is not going to introduce sanctions against Beijing and Moscow to satisfy a third party, the Serbian president noted.

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🇪🇺 The European Union will not strip Hungary of its voting rights over the alleged backsliding on rule of law because the situation in the country is improving, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said.

On December 17, the Financial Times newspaper reported that some EU officials were considering reactivating a punishment procedure for rule of law breaches under Article 7 of one of the primary EU treaties, which allows for the suspension of a member state's voting rights.

"We are not going to resort to that [Article 7] at present. The European Commission indicates that certain measures have been taken ... In fact, Hungary has made some progress. Is there a need to move on? Yes, it is obvious," De Croo told Le Soir newspaper in an interview out Saturday.

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🇷🇺🇨🇿 The Czech Foreign Ministry should figure out how the UN works

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the UN Czech Permanent Representative's refusal to participate in the meeting that the UN Security Council works in accordance with the specific norms of international law, and not in accordance with some other "rules".

"I could not imagine that the Czech Foreign Ministry is so illiterate that they do not know how the UN Security Council works. This is the multilateral structure that is still working in accordance with international law, and not in favor of a 'rules-based world order,'" Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

Russia earlier demanded the presence of the Czech envoy at the UNSC meeting "so that he could explain himself for his country's supply of ammunition, which is killing civilians," but the diplomat refused to attend the meeting.

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🇷🇸 The West is unwilling to accept the outcome of the elections in Serbia and the amount of public support behind President Aleksandar Vucic, which prompted an attempt to "orchestrate an illegal power grab," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.

"The events in Belgrade are yet another attempt to orchestrate an illegal power grab. Apparently, not everyone in the West is ready to accept the fact that voters in Serbia expressed support for President Aleksandar Vucic and his political course in the elections," the minister stressed.

The top diplomat said people in Serbia were mindful of the 2014 coup in Ukraine, which explains why "the number of protesters is relatively small — only a few hundred people."

"Citizens do not trust individuals who say they are against violence, but in reality behave in the opposite way: they ignore the result of the popular vote and provoke the law enforcement," Lavrov clarified.

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🇷🇺 By and large, Russia does not care who wins the US presidential election, it would be naive to believe that relations between Moscow and Washington could be improved with Republicans in power, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik.

"The American political establishment, regardless of party affiliation, sees Russia as an enemy and an existential threat. Given the established inter-party consensus on this issue, it would be naïve to hope for improved relations if the Republican candidate wins," Lavrov said.

"We, by and large, do not care who wins the race for the US presidency," he added.

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