The latest diplomatic ambush of Israel was made possible only by the United States’ historic reversal of its decades-long Mideast policy of vetoing one-sided anti-Israel initiatives at the United Nations Security Council.
You can make a strong case that President Barack Obama’s decision to allow United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass was very harmful to Israel.
Listen to John Kerry’s speech on the comatose Middle East “peace process,” or follow the serial condemnations against Israel at the United Nations, including the latest Security Council resolution 2334, and you’d think that the biggest sin in the world is that Jews build too much. They build too many houses, too many schools, too many synagogues, too many hospitals, too many roads.
It’s true that American presidents, to one degree or another, have always criticized Israeli settlements. But while they’ve called them “illegitimate,” they’ve generally resisted efforts to brand them as “illegal.” There’s a big difference between the two. Illegitimate implies controversy, dispute, debate. Illegal means the debate is over. You are living on stolen land. You are a thief.
After failing for eight years to get the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table, a lame duck President Barack Obama decided to punish Israel by allowing the United Nations Security Council to essentially declare Israel a criminal state.
The way his critics have bludgeoned David Friedman—the right-wing New York lawyer nominated to be the next United States Ambassador to Israel– you would think they’re afraid he will barge into Israel-Palestinian peace talks on his first day in office and yell, “Stop! No more peace talks!”
For a majority of Americans, feeling traumatized and terrified are reasonable responses to the words \”President-elect Donald Trump.\”
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