The latest diplomatic ambush of Israel was only made possible by the US’ historic reversal of its decades-long Mideast policy of vetoing one-sided anti-Israel initiatives at the United Nations Security Council.
President Obama's ambassador's “abstention” last week at the United Nations was actually an endorsement of an onerous one-sided resolution that among other items, defines Judaism’s holiest site as “occupied Palestinian territory” and encourages nations to undertake the boycott of goods made by Jews in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. That's why we've named it our top anti-Semitic incident of 2016.
Make no mistake. This new resolution—developed with the Obama administration’s knowledge and some say with its collusion -- is much worse and more dangerous than the U.N.'s notorious 1975 Zionism equals Racism resolution.
It radically undermines, if not destroys, Israel's relationship with the U.N.
It makes any role for the U.N. in future Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations impossible.
It has effectively removed any incentive for the Palestinian Authority to have face-to-face negotiations with the Jewish State. Indeed, there are stories suggesting that Secretary of State John Kerry will soon present a detailed map in a speech that will dictate a two state solution.
To date, there has been not a word from President Obama and his Secretary of State, not a peep from the hypocrites seated around the Security Council about the real obstacle to a two state solution, the continued control of Hamas in Gaza.
Yes! In their own countries, the French, British, Germans, Italians, and Ukrainian security forces spend days and nights searching every street corner for suspected terrorists threatening their citizenry. Yet the mantra of what is blocking the solution of the Israeli -Palestine conflict, remains one word, not terrorism, but “settlements”. While these civilian communities are overwhelmingly populated by peaceful citizens, every carefully-crafted diplomatic initiative judiciously omits any mention of one other word, Hamas, whose raison d'être is the complete destruction of the State Israel.
You want to guarantee a peaceful two-state solution? Convene a Security Council meeting on how to dislodge Hamas from Gaza, and you'll have one.
Before buying President Obama and Kerry’s roadmap, we would suggest checking with the millions of Syrians, gassed, shot, and dislocated, all the while Secretary Kerry presented one useless piece of paper after another, in search of a “peaceful solution” for the people of Aleppo.
That these bare knuckle anti-Israel maneuvers are launched against America’s only reliable Middle East ally by its long-time ally, is despicable enough, but that it has been launched at 11:59 of the Obama Administration is almost beyond belief.
Israel, her friends and allies across America are grateful that President-elect Trump has said that “things will be different” after January 20th. We look forward to his dispatching our new ambassador to Israel to start working in Jerusalem as the new US embassy is finally built in the eternal capital of the Jewish people.
In the meantime, the American people have a right to know where our senators and congressmen, Democratic and Republican, stand on the Obama U.N. gambit. Is the current president's vision shared by any of our elected officials? We all have a right to know whether other decision makers consider the Western Wall—our Kotel to be located on stolen property. And with 200 disputed territories around the globe, is it moral or anti-Semitic to focus exclusively on only this one?
During 2017, both the U.N. and UNESCO will have new leaders taking the helm. They might want to consider the price of continuing one-sided bullying of Israel by the United Nations.
They should reflect on the fact that the U.S. has refused to pay $400 million in dues to UNESCO because its acceptance of ‘Palestine’ as a member state violated a U.S. statute signed into law by Democratic President named Bill Clinton.
If the U.N., under new leadership, continues its non-stop demonization of the Jewish state, we hope that the new Trump administration will seriously consider endorsing Senator Lindsay Graham’s threatened bill to downsize the U.S.'s oversized annual financial contribution to the organization.
As for President Obama and Secretary Kerry, their last-minute U.N. gambit seeks to add a fourth “achievement” to their Middle East legacy. Here are the other three:
1. Failure to destroy ISIS, early and outright.
2. The Iran nuclear deal that has only succeeded in furthering empowering the mullahocracy.
3. Syrian "red line" debacle.
The Jewish people are a people of memory. We approach our collective future with eyes wide-open.
No matter what the pressure, no Israeli government, left, right or center, will ever accept that our people’s sacred sites are built on stolen land; nor will it ever validate the lies denying the Jewish people’s 3,500 link to the Holy Land — those very lies that now pass for historic "fact" at the United Nations.
And rest assured, too, that Israel will never walk the gangplank for the convenience of a hypocritical world.