Anyone being honest would be hard pressed to find a country President Obama and his administration despises more than Israel. And it showed loud and clear as the Obama administration took the opportunity to give a parting middle finger to our best ally in the Middle East.
The United Nations passed an Egyptian resolution Friday afternoon that will be used as the rationalization for boycotts and terror strikes against Israelis and effectively make East Jerusalem, the site of the Western Wall, “occupied Palestinian territory.” It also condemns and calls for an end to the Jewish “settlements” in Judea and Samaria, otherwise known as the West Bank.
In a huge break with established U.S. policy to support Israel, the Obama administration declined to exercise its ability to veto the resolution, despite pleas from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
This move is just a long line of attacks on Israel that the Obama administration has allowed to take place since 2009. One of the most stunning prior to Friday happening in 2015 when the U.N. adopted twenty sanctions against Israel while the rest of the world only garnered a whopping three.
President Obama, in fact, let U.S. relations between Israel and Netanyahu get so bad that the Prime Minister felt the need to take his appeal to the U.S. Congress and the American people in early 2015. To put it mildly, President Obama has eroded relationships with our longstanding allies in unprecedented ways. The abstention seems to simply be a gratuitous parting shot that has far-reaching implications, but not to him of course.
Thankfully, Republican lawmakers have spoken out against the action,
“This is absolutely shameful,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in a statement. “Today’s vote is a blow to peace that sets a dangerous precedent for further diplomatic efforts to isolate and demonize Israel. Our unified Republican government will work to reverse the damage done by this administration, and rebuild our alliance with Israel.”
Israeli officials, beyond P.M. Netanyahu, have voiced their disgust:
Using language unprecedented in its anger and personal nature, even by the standards of two terms of friction-filled ties between the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Obama Administration, the official declared that “President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the UN.”
The official noted that “President Obama could declare his willingness to veto this resolution in an instant but instead is pushing it. This is an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN and undermines the prospects of working with the next administration of advancing peace.”
Something that George W. Bush afforded Obama as the incoming president. But as we know from previous Democratic administrations, they are nothing but spiteful during transitions of power.
However, even Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.) came out prior to the vote and urged the President to veto the resolution.
This move confirms that the U.N. is nothing but an anti-Israel cess-pool that pontificates about human rights while at the same time provides cover and a platform for dictators and real oppressors. In a truly grotesque moment, the U.N. Security Council erupted in applause following the resolution’s passage.
Applause erupts after @UN #SecurityCouncil passes first resolution on #MiddleEastPeaceProcess in 8 years. pic.twitter.com/mZcn1OXSnZ
— NZ at the UN (@NZUN) December 23, 2016
President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power should all be ashamed of themselves, but they aren’t and won’t be.
We can only be optimistic for the fact that Donald Trump for all his shortcomings and lacking anything that resembles a conservative, at least seems to understand the importance of Israel and has selected an ambassador who supports stronger ties with Israel and the Netanyahu government.
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