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Netanyahu
Castigates Obama as a Backstabber and Betrayer
By Patrick
Buchanan
December 27,
2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- Did the community organizer from Harvard Law just
deliver some personal payback to the IDF commando? So it
would seem.
By abstaining
on that Security Council resolution declaring Israeli
settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal
and invalid, raged Bibi Netanyahu, President Obama "failed
to protect Israel in this gang-up at the UN, and
colluded with it."
Obama’s people,
charged Bibi, "initiated this resolution, stood behind
it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be
passed."
White House
aide Ben Rhodes calls the charges "falsehoods."
Hence, we have
an Israeli leader all but castigating an American
president as a backstabber and betrayer, while the White
House calls Bibi a liar.
This is not an
unserious matter.
"By standing
with the sworn enemies of Israel to enable the passage
of this destructive, one-sided anti-Israel rant and
tirade," writes the Washington Times, "Mr. Obama
shows his colors."
But
unfortunately for Israel, the blow was delivered by
friends as well as "sworn enemies."
The U.S.
abstained, but Britain, whose Balfour Declaration of
1917 led to the Jewish state in Palestine, voted for the
resolution.
As did France,
which allied with Israel in the Sinai-Suez campaign of
1956 to oust Egypt’s Col. Nasser, and whose Mysteres
were indispensable to Israel’s victory in the Six-Day
War of 1967.
Vladimir Putin,
who has worked with Bibi and was rewarded with Israel’s
refusal to support sanctions on Russia for Crimea and
Ukraine, also voted for the resolution.
Egypt, whose
Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was welcomed by Bibi after his
coup against the Muslim Brotherhood president, and who
has collaborated with Bibi against terrorists in Sinai
and Gaza, also voted yes.
China voted yes
as did Ukraine. New Zealand and Senegal, both of which
have embassies in Tel Aviv, introduced the resolution.
Despite
Israel’s confidential but deepening ties with Sunni Arab
states that share her fear and loathing of Iran, not a
single Security Council member stood by her and voted
against condemning Israel’s presence in Arab East
Jerusalem and the Old City. Had the resolution gone
before the General Assembly, support would have been
close to unanimous.
While this
changes exactly nothing on the ground in the West Bank
or East Jerusalem where 600,000 Israelis now reside, it
will have consequences, and few of them will be positive
for Israel.
The resolution
will stimulate and strengthen the Boycott, Divestment
and Sanctions movement against Israel, which has broad
support among U.S. college students, Bernie Sanders
Democrats and the international left.
If Israel does
not cease expanding West Bank settlements, she could be
hauled before the International Criminal Court and
charged with war crimes.
Already, J
Street, the liberal Jewish lobby that backs a two-state
solution in Palestine – and has been denounced by Donald
Trump’s new envoy to Israel David Friedman as "far worse
than kapos," the Jewish guards at Nazi concentration
camps – has endorsed the resolution.
The successful
resolution is also a reflection of eroding support for
Israel at the top of the Democratic Party, as a two-term
president and a presidential nominee, Secretary of State
John Kerry, were both behind it.
Republicans are
moving to exploit the opening by denouncing the
resolution and the U.N. and showing solidarity with
Israel. Goal: Replace the Democratic Party as the most
reliable ally of Israel, and reap the rewards of an
historic transfer of Jewish political allegiance.
That Sen.
George McGovern was seen as pro-Palestinian enabled
Richard Nixon to double his Jewish support between 1968
and 1972.
That Jimmy
Carter was seen as cold to Israel enabled Ronald Reagan
to capture more than a third of the Jewish vote in 1980,
on his way to a 44-state landslide.
Moreover, U.S.
acquiescence in this resolution puts Bibi in a box at
home. Though seen here as a hawk on the settlements
issue, the right wing of Bibi’s coalition is far more
hawkish, pushing for outright annexation of West Bank
settlements. Others call for a repudiation of Oslo and
the idea of an independent Palestinian state.
If Bibi halts
settlement building on the West Bank, he could cause a
split in his Cabinet with rightist rivals like Naftali
Bennett who seek to replace him.
Here in the
U.S., the U.N. resolution is seen by Democrats as a
political debacle, and by many Trump Republicans as an
opportunity.
Sen. Chuck
Schumer has denounced Obama’s refusal to veto the
resolution, echoing sentiments about the world body one
used to hear on America’s far right.
"The U.N." said
Schumer, "has been a fervently anti-Israel body since
the days (it said) ‘Zionism is racism’ and that fervor
has never diminished."
Republican
Senator Lindsey Graham says he will urge Congress to
slash funding for the United Nations.
If the folks
over at the John Birch Society still have some of those
bumper stickers – "Get the U.S. out of the U.N., and the
U.N. out of the U.S.!" they might FedEx a batch over to
Schumer and Graham.
May have some
converts here.
Pat Buchanan has
been a senior adviser to three presidents, twice a
candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and
the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.
Israeli ambassador: We’ll give
Trump proof Obama drove UN vote:
Israel’s ambassador to the United States said Tuesday
that the country will present President-elect Donald
Trump with “evidence” that the Obama administration
orchestrated an anti-settlement resolution at the UN.
Too Little, Too Late for US
Decision on Settlements:
Alarm bells about a new arms race
between the US and Russia went off this week around the
world. .
The UN settlement resolution is
too little and too late:
Palestinians know that they have been offered only stale
crumbs from the UN Security Council's table.
New York Times runs an article
saying Zionism is racist:
Liberal American Jews have “identified themselves with
Zionism, a political agenda rooted in the denial of
liberal politics.”
The views
expressed in this article are the author's own and do
not necessarily reflect Information Clearing House
editorial policy. |
