UN resolution against Israel: Obama’s depravity

The United Nations Security Council’s resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation” of international law is a testimony to not only the undiminished influence of the Muslim world in international affairs; it is also indicative of the inroads Islamists and their sympathizers have made into the capitals of Western nations.

The betrayal of Israel by Barack Obama’s US is one of the biggest in the history of bilateral ties. He ensured that his country abstained from the council’s 14-0 vote. According to a New York Times report (December 28), “President Obama interrupted [on December 21] his Hawaii vacation to consult by phone with his top national security team in Washington. Egypt had introduced a resolution at the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, and a vote was scheduled for the next day.”

So, US Ambassador Samantha Power let the resolution to pass. She later tried to explain the US vote as something bipartisan. She quoted a 1982 statement US President Ronald Reagan had made. It said that Washington “will not support the use of any additional land for the purpose of settlements.” Power said, “That has been the policy of every administration, Republican and Democrat, since before president Reagan and all the way through to the present day.”

This is baloney, because Republicans are furious, including President-elect Donald Trump. While Trump tweeted “As to the UN, things will be different after Jan. 20^th,” it would not be easy for him to help America’s best friend in the Middle East. The resolution said that Israel’s settlements have “no legal validity” and demanded a halt to such activities.

Obama’s obstinacy and Muslim-appeasing proclivity was at full display as he refused to oblige his successor who had wanted the vote to be blocked by the US. This is despite the fact that traditionally Washington used to veto such resolutions in the past.

Commenting on the subject, the prominent conservative American magazine National Review rightly said that the Obama administration “has perverted international law, rewarded Palestinian violence, endorsed ethnic cleansing, and applied UN-created double standards that leave Israel as the most persecuted and most condemned state in UN history.”

Israel’s case is strong, for it is willing to negotiate with its adversaries in the region but they want nothing short of the Jewish state’s annihilation. Right from its birth in 1948, the Arabs have striven for the destruction of Israel. It has always honored its own part of agreements, but the Palestinians are unwilling to accept its very existence. For instance, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula in the Six-Day War of June 1967 from Egypt. But, after a peace accord was reached between the two countries in the late 1970s, the peninsula was returned to Egypt. It needs to be added that over the years the peninsula became a hunting ground for jihadists. They have slaughtered tourists on a number of occasions.

Israel has always shown desire to negotiate for peace in the recent past. In the last few years, it has offered Palestinians twice a capital in East Jerusalem; it has also offered twice the removal of large numbers of settlements. All offers have been rejected by Palestinians who want nothing less than the death of Israel—something that the Jewish state cannot agree to.

However, such is the might of petrodollars and the perversity of opinion makers in the West that Israel is portrayed as the intransigent belligerent in the region, and Palestinians are presented as victims. Despite the clear evidence of the hegemony of Islamists among Palestinians, and growing footprints of the former all over the world, the mainstream media and public intellectuals never tire of calumniating against Israel.

Arab money has played a big role in molding opinion. The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation received millions of dollars from foreign governments such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. Qatar, it may be pointed out, is a major backer of Islamic State and Hamas. Come to think of it, Hillary came within kissing distance of becoming US President.

It is not just Arabs who buy influence in the West; even the beggarly Pakistanis have the cunning to do that. Robin Raphel, who was appointed by president Bill Clinton as the country’s first Assistant Secretary of State for South & Central Asian Affairs, was suspected of being a Pakistani spy; she narrowly escaped the treason trial. It may be recalled that in 1994 she had questioned Kashmir’s accession to India.

The only silver lining is that the next US President would be Trump and not Hillary Clinton. This may reduce Arab and Muslim appeasement.