Graded IR Class

President Mahmoud Abbas made no such call to the secretary general, but a group of distinguished scholars and NGOs told him in an open letter that he should either stand for law and justice or resign.

Over the last few decades, Israel has disregarded hundreds of resolutions, "censuring", "deploring", "urging against", "recommending against", or "condemning" its attacks, settlements, deportations, occupation, etc. 

In the jargon of UN diplomacy, it seems that a resolution that "urges" means "we aren't happy but won't move a finger"; "deplores", means "we don't approve, but you're free to continue with your mischief"; "condemns" means "we're very unhappy but won't do anything about it, nada"; and, "cease" means "if you don't stop we'll remind you if someone reminds us the next time around."

Palestinian Authority and Fatah during the 2014

They said the decision projects weakness to Hamas and its Islamist fundamentalist allies and sponsors led by Iran.

“The rest of the tentacles of Islamist fundamentalism are happy tonight,” Likud MK Moshe Feiglin said. “There is no doubt that the picture of the IDF ending its ground operation without defeating Hamas encourages our Islamist fundamentalist enemies. If you don’t annihilate Hamas, the next round will be against Iran, Hizbullah, ISIS, and the Islamists inside Israel.”

“Calling the goal merely neutralizing the tunnels is to fight the symptom, not the problem,” Feiglin said.