One of the last in a litany of shameful acts committed by the Obama administration was allowing the passage of of UNSC Resolution 2334 on December 23, 2016. In a unique act of perfidy, the Obama administration allowed a one-sided resolution to be passed condemning Israel for activities inside of settlements that are recognized as being Israeli territory in any Two State solution. Not only did the White House lobby nations to vote in favor of the resolution, the White House lied about the role it and the State Department played in that lobbying even after transcripts were leaked of the lobbying.

The Israeli government has charged that the Obama administration instigated the resolution. While there has been no evidence of that presented to date, it is certainly consistent with the anti-Israel, pro-Iran bias of the White House.

Former ambassador Dan Shapiro has offered the inside story of why the administration decided to sandbag a loyal and steadfast ally in its last month in power:

Obama’s eventual decision not to veto the Security Council resolution came in the context of the “big party among advocates of settlements” in Israel who, after Trump’s victory, started “hooping and hollering” that the era of Palestinian statehood was over and calling for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank.

In that climate, vetoing the resolution, which was more balanced than previous such texts, would have sent a message that the US no longer supports a two-state solution, Shapiro said.

“That was the context and the atmosphere in which, in the last week of December — the day of my daughter’s bat mitzvah — President Obama had to make that decision. And one of the factors in that decision was, if he vetoes it, does it somehow give his approval to this big party going on about annexation and legalization and widespread settlement construction and the death of the two-state solution? That was a factor. So it was a judgment call.”

This is both bizarre and believable. It is bizarre because no UNSCR was going to change the policy of the incoming White House one whit. At the same time it is totally in keeping with Obama’s character. While Trump is rightly criticized for being petty and vindictive, his real offense is doing so in a crass and boorish way while shadowed by a malignant media. No one takes a backseat to Obama in petulance and vindictiveness.

The message here is that Obama was just trying to teach those deplorable Trump supporters a lesson and to show them that he was president for another 28 days.