UN and Obama March Into Irrelevancy After Anti-Israel Resolution

The United Nations passed a resolution against the settlement activity of the state of Israel. 

Actual text here contains the following: 

- Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian  territory occupied since 1967,  including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;
- Reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard.

Interestingly, Venezuela, one of the countries that proposed the resolution, has its own problems.
Venezuela is printing a 20,000 bolivar note - CNN Money, December 5, 2016
Venezuela is too poor to import food and medicine. So why is the government still paying off its debt? - Quartz, December 20, 2016

The Venezuelan government must feel so strongly about this issue that they need to take time away from focusing on solving their own crises that they must speak out against Israel's 'crimes'. Maybe the article from Quartz should be updated to 'Venezuela is too poor to import food and medicine. So why is the government sponsoring biased resolutions against Israel?'

This resolution is nothing but one-sided as it could potentially:
 - weaken the negotiating position of Israel 
 - encourage enemies of Israel to withhold concessions and escalate military aggression
 - enable any country to label Israel as a rogue state
 - create a foundation to institute economic sanctions and travel restrictions on Israeli citizens
 - establish a basis for a future UN resolution declaration of a 'Palestinian state'

This sounds like a punishment. But, importantly, it will only increase and not mitigate the probability of war in the Middle East.

The UN has an extreme anti-Israel bias as evidenced by the 226 resolutions concerning the 'Israel and Palestine' issue since its founding in 1948 - see the full list here. Many of these resolutions contain language such as 'condemns' and 'deplores' against Israel.

My friend, Menachem Robinson, who lives in Israel, articulately refutes the UN position in a blog post from over a year ago:

Who Owns This land? - Absolute Truth, August 10, 2015

With the second exile in the year 68, some crazy Roman renamed the country Palestine (mostly because he couldn’t pronoun Philistine). Even in the almost two thousand years, that the country was called Palestine, there was still a presence by its designated owner, the Jews. Before 1948, the Palestinians were the Jews. I have neighbors who were born here before 1948 who joke about the fact that they were the real Palestinians. They became Israeli’s when the country was once again named Israel. In 1964, with the forming of the Palestine Liberation Organization (a terrorist group), they started a very well organized propaganda campaign and pretended that the Arabs who live in Israel were the real Palestinians.

The British Mandate (in effect, British rule) of Palestine, including the Balfour Declaration, was confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922 at the San Remo conference. It came into effect by treaty in 1923. The boundaries of Palestine were drawn by the British and included modern Jordan, which was called Trans-Jordanian Palestine (you mean there is a Palestine that exists today that is much bigger than Israel?). The declaration included the wording “His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.

This eventually led to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 by the newly formed United Nations. The problem was that the UN took away 82% of the land designated for the Jews including most of the area that was biblical Israel. It was well known that the United States State Department advised the then President Harry Truman to sign in favor of the Jewish state, but only because the US was convinced that 4 mighty Arab armies would obliterate this new nation. How noble of the US and many other Jew-hating countries who thought they had the next final solution. Hashem had other plans. To this day the US military will never teach the tactics of the Israeli army used in the 1948 war since miracles aren’t part of military tactical training. Israel had no usable effective army, no armament with which to fight and only One top General to lead them – Hashem. I guarantee that Israel in every conflict that followed (1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 1991, 2006, and all the terrorist attacks in between) was not as mighty as they thought and had to rely on great miracles to experience the success they enjoyed.

So what does it mean when you see in the news how Israel is constantly trying to occupy Arab land? It is the most effective propaganda from terrorist groups and has the complete support of the Jew-hating media and Jew hating-nations of the world. All of the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is Israel. The only way that land can be given to someone else is by a legal treaty such as the treaty that resulted from the San Remo Conference, 1920. That treaty officially by international law gave the Land of Palestine back to its owners, the Jews. The UN resolution of 1947, the Oslo Accord of 1993 and any other bogus agreements to give the land away are not legal by international law – it can only be accomplished with a treaty. Another consideration is that any country that is attacked and wins territory in that war, keeps it. Why does Israel have to give back land to Arab terrorist organizations after Israel won the war – land that belongs to the Jews in the first place?

The Arabs of the Middle East have about 650 times the amount of land that the Jews have. If we talk about Islamic countries, we increase to over 1000 times the land area that the Jews have. The Jews are in great shortage of land, the Arabs are not. What is even worse is that the Arabs don’t even want the land. When we hear speeches in English they talk of the horrors of the Jews stealing their land. When they talk in Arabic (in their mosques, for instance) they tell their true agenda – we want all the Jews dead. What is even sadder is they say “first the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” In other words the bottom line is to kill all the infidels and make the entire planet Islamic. They are making great strides since the Jew-hating world supports their efforts even though it would mean the demise of all non-Jewish nations. I wish Israel’s propaganda was that good!!!!!

The Israeli Perspective

According to the Torah, it is permissible for Jews to give up land if it will save lives. In fact, there were Orthodox rabbis that supported this 'land for peace' process during the negotiation of the Oslo Accords. Due to continued acts of terror, they abandoned their support for the process. A more recent example of this failed concept was the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in 2005. This move did not enhance security for Israel as evidenced by the rise of Hamas and the subsequent military engagements in Gaza. [Just view details on the Hamas charter here or here - some examples: 'strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine' and 'there is no negotiated settlement possible. Jihad is the only answer.'] It would be completely naive and foolish of Israel to turn over additional disputed land in the hopes that a moderate party can take over. There can only be a negotiated resolution between both parties.

The Arab Perspective

But, aren't the Israelis just dragging their feet? Yes, they hold the land and are running out the clock. But haven't countries over the past thousands of years done the same thing? Israel has been repeatedly attacked, has won wars and has maintained possession of their land. Russia just annexed Crimea two years ago. In the height of hypocrisy, Russia voted in favor of the UN resolution.

So, what about all of the displaced individuals of the 'Israeli occupation'? How can there be justice for them? Congressman Jerrold Nadler drafted a bill in the US House of Representatives that puts things in a different perspective:

H.R.4664 - Displaced Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries and Iran Act.

It contains the following:

A comprehensive peace in the region will require the resolution of all outstanding issues through bilateral and multilateral negotiations involving all concerned parties.

Approximately 850,000 Jews were displaced from Arab countries and Iran since the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948.

The United States has demonstrated interest and concern about the mistreatment, violation of rights, forced expulsion, and expropriation of assets of minority populations in general, and, in particular, former Jewish refugees displaced from Arab countries.

Since the Arab countries have taken such an active role in the 'peace process', why shouldn't they be held to the same standard that applies to Israel? Shouldn't they acknowledge that Jewish refugees were displaced from Middle Eastern countries and are entitled to compensation? According to this report, it isn't likely:

Saudi Arabia has 100,000 air-conditioned tents sitting empty, still won’t take Syrian refugees - Washington Times, September 15, 2015


Expected Outcome

There is zero probability that Israel will comply with this UN resolution. It would be national suicide for them to unilaterally cede land to an enemy that openly wants to destroy it, undermine their negotiating position and weaken their military advantage. 

So, wouldn't it be nice if the world awakened to the fact that Israel is the size of New Jersey, holds a fraction of all the land in the Middle East, and is never going away. Israel could annex the land in dispute. Displaced Arab refugees would be compensated generously by the wealthy Arab nations and Middle Eastern Jews would indefinitely defer demands for compensation from their countries of origin. There would be true peace in the Middle East. 

No, this isn't happening either. 

Since UN resolutions are very difficult (if not impossible) to overturn, I suspect Israel will step away from their dealings with the UN. The UN will rightly become irrelevant. 

President Obama's Role

Unlike the whole world, which is completely biased against Israel, the United States has a mixed record in its relationship with Israel. (no, I do not believe the United States is a great friend of Israel just because of military aid that comes with strings attached)

In all fairness, President Obama deserves a debt of gratitude by the state of Israel for his role in saving Israeli lives during the Egyptian revolution a few years back.

2011 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Egypt

On 9 September 2011, several thousand protesters forcibly entered the Israeli embassy in Giza, Greater Cairo, after breaking down a recently constructed wall built to protect the compound. The protesters later broke into a police station and stole weapons, resulting in police using tear gas in an attempt to protect themselves. The demonstrators eventually broke through the security wall and entered the offices of the embassy. Six members of the embassy staff, who had been in a "safe room", were evacuated from the site by Egyptian commandos, following the personal intervention of United States President Barack Obama.

But, in his final month in office, President Obama instructed the United States ambassador to abstain from voting while actually intending for the resolution to pass.
U.S. intended to allow passage of U.N. draft critical of Israel: officials - Reuters, December 22, 2016

The Israelis have been justifiably very critical of President Obama and alleged that he in fact was behind the resolution:

Israeli officials: US abstention was Obama’s ‘last sting,’ showed his ‘true face' - Times of Israel, December 24, 2016

the US’s abstention in Friday’s vote “is the last sting of President Obama. It exposes the true face of the [Obama] administration,” the officials said Saturday evening. “Now it’s easier to understand what we dealt with the past eight years.”

Official: ‘Rather ironclad’ intel shows Obama behind UN vote - Times of Israel, December 26, 2016

Speaking to Fox News on Sunday, David Keyes said Arab sources, among others, had informed Jerusalem of Obama’s alleged involvement in advancing the resolution.

“We have rather ironclad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place,” Keyes told the US media outlet.

Not sure how this was a surprise, they just needed to watch this video:

With his successor planning to reverse many of his policies (i.e. Obamacare, immigration, etc.), President Obama's legacy will be his failing attempt to punish Israel.


United States Divided
 
Democrats in the US are split, for example,

Senator Dianne Feinstein (who is Jewish) supported the White House decision:
Feinstein Supports White House Refusal to Veto UN Resolution - December 23, 2016

but, Senator Cory Booker (who is African American) rejected the White House decision: 
Booker Statement on UN Security Council Resolution Targeting Israel - December 23, 2016

Republicans, as expected, opposed the resolution:
House Speaker Ryan, Senator McCain condemn U.S. abstention on U.N.'s Israel vote - Reuters, December 23, 2016

Countless individuals on the left have been misinformed by the mainstream media and equated Donald Trump with anti-semitism. For example, this completely ignorant article was published two days ago:

Campaign 2016's anti-Semitism has me feeling conspicuously Jewish this Christmas season - LA Times, December 23, 2016

Trump dabbled in anti-Semitic dog-whistles throughout the campaign. His final advertisement before the election suggested that Hillary Clinton and Jewish bankers had joined forces to strip “our country of its wealth.” He plans to appoint as his chief strategist Steve Bannon, a man who as editor of Breitbart trafficked in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and who has expressed anti-Semitic views personally. The president-elect has been lauded and endorsed by the neo-Nazi alt-right, and anti-Semitic Twitter trolls have targeted Jewish journalists reporting on Trump.

So, according to the left, you can have Jewish grand kids, be anti-Semitic and pro-Israel all at the same time??? Fortunately, none of the top rabbis bought into this nonsense:

Rav Edelstein: Vote Like Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky - Matzav, November 8, 2016
Telshe Rosh Yeshiva: I Voted for Trump and You Should Too - Matzav, November 8, 2016
Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel Votes for Trump - Matzav, November 8, 2016
 
So, what about the 'America First' anti-globalist doctrine? The United States has and will continue to give Israel billions of dollars of military aid. Shouldn't the United States take a neutral approach to world affairs? For some, Israel is a liability that should be cut off. I would argue that it is in the strategic interest of the United States to keep Israel as a strong ally.

Does the United States want Israel to pivot toward China and/or Russia like the Philippines??

Duterte Rails Against America, Dares CIA To Take Him Out - The Daily Caller, October 7, 2016
Philippines' Duterte agrees to buy Chinese firearms - RT, December 11, 2016

Unsurprisingly, President-Elect Trump has been vocal about his opposition to the UN resolution.
Trump warns UN after Israel vote: 'Things will be different' soon - The Hill, December 23, 2016


One rather amusing aspect of the election is how Donald Trump attracted broad support from Orthodox Jews and the alternative media (a.k.a alt-right)!!  How that 'coalition' will co-exist will be interesting as many journalists on the 'alt-right' have highly negative views on Israel.

Some, like Benjamin Fulford, as seen here,

Trump’s chain will be jerked if he tries to stop the takedown of war criminal Benyamin Netanyahu - Benjamin Fulford, December 26, 2016

some believe in a Zionist plot by the 'Khazarian mafia' to control the world. I can assure Benjamin and others that in all my studies (albeit limited), I have yet to find a Talmudic source that advocates for Jewish world domination. If anyone has such examples, please send them to me so I can investigate. In addition, if there is a 'Khazarian mafia' run by prominent Jews (which there isn't), there shouldn't be a collective punishment against a misinformed populace. For clues on the real conspirators, view my earlier post here.