Embarrassing When A First Lady Delivers Words About Gaza That Presidents, Prime Ministers, Monarchs, Foreign Ministers Should Have Delivered At UNGA. Crossing “Red Line” Should Have Consequences
Embarrassing When A First Lady Delivers Words Presidents, Prime Ministers, Monarchs, And Foreign Ministers Should Have Delivered At The 80th UNGA In New York City.
“I believe there is not a single moral, legal, humanitarian, or ethical red line left uncrossed in Gaza.”
If Nothing Remains To Be Crossed, What Remains To Be Done? And By Who?
The Words Of The First Lady Were Painfully Profound And Prophetic While Reinforcing The Inescapable Message That Heads Of State And Heads Of Government Have Failed For Nearing Two Years To Protect The 2.3 Million Inhabitants Of Gaza.
In This Analysis, Governments Of China, Iran, Russia, Turkiye, And United States Define “Red Line” Which In Reality Is Flexible, Movable, Thin, Easily Torn, And Discardable.
“Red Line” Can Change Color Like A Chameleon.
“Red Line” For Governments Is Increasingly Performative. Testosterone Enhancers To Project Tough Guy Image For Presidents And Prime Ministers. Enjoying A Political Energy Bar While Children In Gaza Lack Water.
Governments have teams of speechwriters and each draft of a speech advances through layers of scrutiny prior to a final draft presented to the principal. If not the First Lady, then whomever created the phrase is a creative wordsmith. Having shared the phrase with the public, the First Lady, as speaker, owns them and is accountable for them.
On 24 September 2025, Emine Erdogan, First Lady of the Republic of Turkiye (2014-2028), delivered remarks at the opening of the Zero Waste Blue- Drop by Drop exhibition in New York City organized by the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change of Türkiye & Zero Waste Foundation. Mrs. Erdogan is the chair of the United Nations (UN) High-Level Advisory Board on Zero Waste
“I believe there is not a single moral, legal, humanitarian, or ethical red line left uncrossed in Gaza.” Emine Erdogan
The words spoken by Mrs. Erdogan were equally profound and prophetic while reinforcing the inescapable message that since 7 October 2023 heads of state and heads of government have abjectly and collectively failed to protect the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza.
Perhaps, the most memorable words heard during the concluded 80th annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) were not from a head of state, not from a head of government, not from a monarch, and not from a minister. A woman delivered the words.
A seventy-year-old First Lady who is a mother and a grandmother. Her husband is Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of the Republic of Turkiye (2014-2028). A moment to review the role of women at the UN:
An anemic 21% of Permanent Representatives (ambassadors) to the UN are women. According to the UN, approximately 7% of all UN ambassadors since 1947 have been women, and seventy-three countries have never appointed a female representative since the UN was created in 1946. Another sixty-four countries have appointed only one female ambassador. From the UN: As of January 2025, only twenty-five countries have a female head of state or government; women make up 22.9% of cabinet ministers worldwide, with underrepresentation in key areas like foreign affairs and defense. In 2024, 113 countries worldwide had never had a woman serve as Head of State or Government. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres completes his second five-year term at the end of 2026, and the next Secretary-General will begin their term on 1 January 2027.
During the last twenty-three months, heads of state and heads of government have consistently blown through their respective self-defined “lines” relating to what is acceptable behavior: From condemnation of what Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel (2022- , 2009-2021, 1996-1999), instructs the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to do throughout Gaza- destroy structures and destroy infrastructure, to demands for the government of the State of Israel to permit unobstructed deliveries of assistance to the 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza, and that the IDF cease its operations in Gaza.
Appallingly, not only are most heads of state and heads of government parents and grandparents, but some are physicians. Those MD’s have substituted their Hippocratic Oath for their political ambitions. Rather than stepping up to cast a shadow, they hide from a shadow.
Examining “Red Line” (from media reporting)
In 2012, Barack Obama, President of the United States (2009-2017), said “We have been very clear to the Assad regime- but also to other players on the ground- that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus; that would change my equation.” Following a chemical weapons attack in Syria in 2013, some critics accused the Obama-Biden Administration of failing to act on the “red line.”
In 2015, a Turkish Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M attack aircraft near the Syria-Turkiye border. According to the government of Turkiye, “the aircraft was fired upon while in Turkish airspace because it violated the border up to a depth of 2.19 kilometres (1.36 miles) for about 17 seconds after being warned to change its heading ten times over a period of five minutes before entering the airspace. President Erdogan warned that “everyone should respect the right of Turkey to defend its borders.” He also noted that Turkiye’s actions were fully in line with the new rules of engagement adopted after Syria shot down a Turkish jet in 2012. The rules state that all “elements” approaching from Syria are considered an enemy threat.
Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation (2000-2008 and 2012-2030), said “We don't want to burn bridges, but if somebody interprets our good intentions as weakness, our reaction will be asymmetrical, rapid, and harsh. We'll decide for ourselves in each case where the red line is.”
In 2024, Joeph Biden, President of the United States (2021-2025), reaffirmed his opposition to operations by the IDF in Rafah, Gaza, without a credible and executable plan to safeguard the civilian population sheltering there, warning that an attack on the city would constitute a “red line.”
In 2024, Jake Sullivan, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (2021-2025), said “What we're going to be looking at is whether there is a lot of death and destruction from this operation or if it is more precise and proportional.” Then, on Sunday night, dozens of Palestinians were not just killed but burnt alive, decapitated, maimed in an attack on a displaced people’s camp on the edge of Rafah.
In 2023, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN, said “We welcome the Chinese announcement that they want peace, because that’s what we always want to pursue in situations like this. But we also have to be clear that if there are any thoughts and efforts by the Chinese and others to provide lethal support to the Russians in their brutal attack against Ukraine that that is unacceptable. That would be a red line.”
In 2022- “The very fact of supplying the Ukrainian regime with German-made lethal weapons used not only against Russian servicemen but also against civilians of Donbas is the red line that the German authorities should not have crossed, including taking into account the moral and historical responsibility of Germany to our people for the crimes of Nazism during the Great Patriotic War,” said Sergey Nechayev, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Germany.
In 2025, “The Taiwan question is at the core of China's core interests and the first red line that cannot be crossed in China-U.S. relations,” said Lin Jian of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
In 2020, “The U.S. side should refrain from going too far with meddling. Red lines shouldn’t be crossed.” Yang Jiechi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China.
In 2022, “If ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces provoke, coerce, or challenge the bottom line and cross red lines, we will be forced to take decisive measures,” said Chiu Kuo-Cheng, Minister of Defense of China.
In 2025, “They crossed a very big red line by attacking (Iran’s) nuclear facilities. The most dangerous one happened only last night.” Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran.
A “Red Line” Opportunity Lost
The performative theatric of the walk-out by delegations as Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel (2022- , 2009-2021, 1996-1999), commenced his remarks at the 80th UNGA on Friday, 26 September 2025, neither deterred Prime Minister Netanyahu nor was all that creative. A better option would have been for the delegations to remain in their respective seats in the General Assembly Hall, but stand up and turn their backs to Prime Minister Netanyahu while he delivered his remarks.