posted 12-23-2016 03:17 PM                  

Published December 23, 2016 ·
FoxNews.com

A "shameful" abstention by the U.S. in a United Nations vote Friday allowed passage of a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

The UN Security Council resolution was put forward by four nations a day after Egypt withdrew it Thursday under pressure from Israel and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Failure by the U.S. to veto the measure was seen as a double-cross of America's key Middle Eastern ally, and attributed directly to outgoing President Barack Obama, who has had chilly relations with Israel throughout his eight-year tenure.

Reaction from U.S. Republicans and Jewish leaders around the world was swift and sharp.

"It was to be expected that Israel's greatest ally would act in accordance with the values that we share and that they would have vetoed this disgraceful resolution," said Israel's Ambassador Danny Danon. "I have no doubt that the new U.S. administration and the incoming UN Secretary General will usher in a new era in terms of the UN's relationship with Israel."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., blasted the Obama administration for undermining America's historic Middle East ally.

"This is absolutely shameful," Ryan said. "Today's vote is a blow to peace that sets a dangerous precedent for further diplomatic efforts to isolate and demonize Israel."

Minutes after the vote, Trump took to Twitter to express his opposition.

"As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th," Trump tweeted.

The measure was adopted with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause, after U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power abstained. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years.

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"The resolution is too narrowly focused on settlements when we all know, or all should know" there are other factors that contribute to the conflict between Israel and Palestinians, Power said in an explanation for why the U.S. chose to sit on the fence, which ensured passage of the resolution

The Obama White House, under heavy pressure from the Israeli government and its supporters to veto the resolution, kept everyone guessing until the vote whether it would stop shielding Israel from council resolutions and permit it to pass by abstaining.

After the vote, White House officials acknowledged on a conference that Obama made the decision himself after several rounds of discussions with top administration officials.

As for Trump, deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes pointedly said there’s only one president at a time – and that the Obama administration was concerned the Israelis’ pace of settlement activity could put the viability of a two-state solution at risk.

Israel believes it has the right to expand settlements in the disputed territories as populations within them expand. Palestinians do not believe the settlements should exist at all, and world condemnation of expansion is seen as a possible first in that direction.

The resolution, warning that Israeli settlement expansion is “steadily eroding the two-state solution and entrenching a one-state reality,” calls on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activity in occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.” It repeated the longstanding UN position that all settlements on land Israel conquered in 1967 are illegal under international law.

A senior Israeli official accused the U.S. of a "shameful move" after learning that it did not intend to veto the text, the BBC reported.

The U.S., which has veto power as one the council five permanent members of the council, has traditionally sheltered Israel from condemnatory resolutions. But the Obama administration has long made clear its opposition to Israeli settlement-building in occupied territory and there had been speculation that in its final month it might allow a resolution against settlements to pass at the U.N.

A senior Israeli official told The Associated Press: "President Obama and Secretary [of State John] Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the U.N.

"The U.S. administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel's back which would be a tail-wind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall [the Jewish holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem] occupied Palestinian territory.”

Most of those critical of the move by the U.S. painted it as a stab in Israel's back delivered by Obama.

“This last minute political maneuvering is shameful," said Ric Grenell, former spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the UN and a Fox News contributor. "It is inconsistent with the long standing U.S. policy that no country or organization should be dictating solutions on the two parties.

"Today’s abstention by the Obama Administration will make it harder to find a peaceful solution because it imposes outside positions on Israel without letting them negotiate directly,” he added.

Wael Abu Youssef, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Reuters that Netanyahu's government "must not be rewarded" by the initial withdrawal of the draft resolution.

posted 12-24-2016 09:12 AM                  

By Anne Bayefsky
·Published December 24, 2016 ·
FoxNews.com

The vicious condemnation of Israel at the UN Security Council on December 23, 2016 is a watershed moment in U.S.-UN relations – albeit not as President Obama hoped. Following the vote of fourteen in favor and one American abstention, Palestinian representative Riyadh Mansour and American Ambassador Samantha Power exchanged a telling handshake. Evidently, President Obama believes that he has put one over on Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the incoming Trump administration. But here’s another possibility: treachery at the UN will not be cost free.

Let’s be absolutely clear about what has just happened. The Palestinians have completed the hijacking of every major UN institution. The 2016 General Assembly has adopted nineteen resolutions condemning Israel and nine critical of all other UN states combined. The 2016 Commission on the Status of Women adopted one resolution condemning Israel and zero on any other state. The 2016 UN Human Rights Council celebrated ten years of adopting more resolutions and decisions condemning Israel than any other place on earth. And now – to the applause of the assembled – the Palestinians can add the UN Security Council to their list.

Resolution sponsors Malaysia and New Zealand explained UN-think to the Council this way: Israeli settlements are “the single biggest threat to peace” and the “primary threat to the viability of the two-state solution.” Not seven decades of unremitting Arab terror and violent rejection of Jewish self-determination in the historic homeland of the Jewish people.

This is not just any lie. This is the big lie of modern antisemitism. This is the lie that drove a Palestinian teenager in June of this year to creep into the home of 13-year old Hallel Ariel and butcher her with a knife in the back as she slept in her bed.

The bed was located in the “settlement” of Kiryat Arba – on Arab-claimed territory whose ownership – by agreement – is subject to final status negotiations instead of back-stabbing UN resolutions. So to skip the UN-eze, today’s hate fest was diplomatic terrorism.

Obama’s failure to veto the resolution is at odds with long-standing American foreign policy that has insisted on peace through negotiations, and not UN-fiat, as the only way to ensure genuine and long-lasting recognition and cooperation. His excuse for throwing bipartisan wisdom overboard was delivered by Ambassador Power, in one of the most disingenuous statements in the history of American diplomacy.

Power began by likening Obama’s deed to Ronald Reagan’s treatment of Israel. She repeatedly claimed that the move was nothing new and “in line” with the past, though “historic” is how speaker-after-speaker and the President of the Council himself described it. She noted “Israel has been treated differently than other nations at the United Nations” and then doubled-down on more of the same. She complained that Council “members suddenly summon the will to act” when it comes to Israel, after the White House had actively pushed the frantic adoption of the resolution with less than 48 hours’ notice.

At its core, this UN move is a head-on assault on American democracy. President Obama knew full well he did not have Congressional support for the Iran deal, so he went straight to the Security Council first. Likewise, he knew that there would have been overwhelming Congressional opposition to this resolution, so he carefully planned his stealth attack.

He waited until Congress was not in session. Members of his administration made periodic suggestions that nothing had been decided. There were occasional head fakes that he was “leaning” against it. He produced smiling photo-ops from a Hawaiian golf course with no obvious major foreign policy moves minutes away. Holiday time-outs were in full-swing across the country. And then he pounced, giving Israel virtually no notice of his intent not to veto.

Profound betrayal of a true democratic friend of the United States is the only possible description.

Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon held up a Bible in that sanctuary of idolatry and spoke of the holiday of Chanukah, about to commence this calendar year on Christmas Eve. He reminded his listeners that over two thousand years ago another King had banished the Jewish people from the Temple in Jerusalem, and tried to sever Jews from their religion and their heritage.

And he continued: “But we prevailed. The Jewish people fought back. We regained our independence and relit the Menorah candles…We overcame those decrees during the time of the Maccabees and we will overcome this evil decree today.”

The Security Council and President Obama leave a trail of devastation across the planet, with evil empowered and good forsaken. But their record does not have to be our future. Today’s vote reminds us of what it takes for evil to triumph.

Doing nothing is not an option for our new President and our incoming Congress. The time has come to undertake an urgent and full review of America’s relationship to the United Nations, and to suspend financial support until that review can identify how best to use American dollars in the interests of peace, security and human dignity. The perfidy of Barack Obama will not be the last word.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/12/24/diplomatic-terrorism-at-un-courtes y-president-obama.html

That last sentence hits the nail right on the head. The UN has become a joke.

posted 12-27-2016 11:35 AM                  

By comparison, no other president has exhibited Obama's lack of support for America.

In my mind, this son of a Muslim (notice I didn't use the "B" word) with questionable citizenship has seemingly done his absolute best to (1)weaken American leadership and presence on the world stage, (2)hinder peace negotiations throughout the Muslim world, and (3)divide the country by continuously stirring up racial activism and prioritizing ethnic support over American illness and poverty.

posted 12-29-2016 07:59 PM                  

This little socialist SOB (with no economic experience or understanding) needs to be straightened out by Trump big time ... and I have faith that he will.

Since Turdo has taken over, our slumping economy has slumped further (the economic analysts describe it as flatlined)...... job creation has been miserable, there has been no noticeable increase in foreign trade, and the Canadian dollar has steadily slipped from 77 cents U.S. to 73 cents U.S. and continues to slide.

Recently he has begun to be investigated for his questionable private fund raising dinners with wealthy private business organizations (e.g. Asian Canadians, Muslim Canadians, Pakistani Canadians, etc.).

Bottom line ..... we've voted in a cross breed between Obama and Bernie Sanders. UGH !!!!