Sunday Reads: Obama shocks Israel at the UN

US

Elliott Abrams and Michael Singh believe that President Obama’s decision has ” target=”_blank”>President Obama’s surprising move:

If there is one area in the resolution that may be potentially problematic for the future, it is the reference to the settlements being illegal. That could create problems for the one possible formula for resolving the border at some point: settlement blocs and territorial swaps. One way to absorb a significant number of settlers is to permit settlement blocs which are on a small part of the West Bank to become part of Israel; in return the Israelis would swap territory as compensation to the Palestinians. Will that not be more difficult if all settlements are deemed illegal?

Making the concept of blocs and swaps harder to implement is probably not the legacy President Obama wants, and yet it may be one he has just made more likely.

Israel

Alan Dershowitz ” target=”_blank”>disproves Netanyahu’s claim that things are going well in Israel’s foreign policy:

In less than 10 years we will know whether his optimistic vision of Israel’s place in the world was as precise as his more pessimistic predictions over the Middle East in general. But the fact that 14 out of 15 states, representing all continents, voted in favor of the resolution, and not a single one voted against it, makes it difficult to believe his premise, repeated ad nauseum in speeches and briefings, that the world no longer cares about what Israel does in the West Bank.

Middle East

Charles Krauthammer writes about Aleppo and what he sees as President Obama’s ” target=”_blank”>will not help the Palestinians from collapsing:

Many Palestinians and many of their sympathizers would like to see this vote as a landmark victory for the Palestinian cause in a long campaign to isolate Israel diplomatically and to delegitimize it morally in the eyes of the world. The vote is certainly a propaganda victory for the Palestinian cause, but it does nothing to help the Palestinians in practical terms. Indeed, a sober look at the situation suggests that the Palestinians have not been this weak, this divided or this helpless in many decades. Almost everywhere one looks around the world, the net effect of the policies of the Obama presidency has been to undermine the movements and the values that the President hoped to support; the cause of the Palestinians and the quest for the two state solution are no exceptions to the rule.

Jewish World

Charles Bramesco tries to figure out where there are Beyond that, though, there’s rich narrative ground in the Jewish heritage waiting to be broken, and good stories deserve to be told. The time has come — Hollywood’s ready for The Schlep Around the Corner.

Cengiz Sisman writes about the curious story of