The Obama Administration Joins with the Jackals at the UN to Betray Israel

In an astonishing display of craven petulance, the Obama Administration sent one (final) parting shot to Israel & Prime Minister Netanyahu by refusing to veto a United Nations (U.N.) resolution, which absurdly insists that Jewish settlements, including the Jewish Quarter (in Jerusalem), are occupied territory and accordingly, are barriers to peace.

By joining with what the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “the jackals”—the permanent, global, virulently anti-Israel caucus at the United Nations—to pass U.N. Security Council Resolution (UNSC) 2334 to condemn Israel, the Obama Administration enlarges the “problem from hell.”

This problem increases because the Administration provides diplomatic cover for genocidal aggression incited by anti-Israel groups such as Hamas and Fatah. This move also leaves our strongest ally in the region vulnerable to the forces of evil that include groups preparing to bring false criminal charges at the International Criminal Court. President Obama’s decision ignores the fact that the settlement question exists because peace between Israel and the Palestinians has proven to be elusive largely because Palestinian leaders prefer to propagate grievances rather than engage in serious direct negotiations.

Beyond this resolution’s adverse legal consequences, it also creates a pathway for additional diplomatic aggression during the last days of the Obama Administration. This pathway includes the possibility that President Obama will push for another U.N. resolution to set the parameters for a permanent Israeli-Palestinian accord, one that likely also violates international law.

Just as tanks and missiles are instruments of military aggression, improvised explosive devices, pressure cooker bombs, and 18-wheelers are means of terror. Add to this list those U.N. resolutions like this one that abandon U.S. policy and expose the Middle East’s only democracy to diplomatic and legal terrorism. Representing a dramatic shift in U.S. policy, UNSC resolution 2334 is designed to shrink Israel’s sovereignty, eviscerate its borders and reduce its ability to defend itself against terror attacks. These attacks are launched with the blessings of the Palestinian Authority, which promotes terror by paying bounties to terrorists and members of their families.

While the Obama Administration has remained powerless as Aleppo implodes in a toxic cauldron rife with human rights abuses; while Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, is rewarded with billions of dollars as part of a flawed nuclear deal; and while ISIS-sponsored human savagery continues on a scale rarely seen in human history; the Obama Administration has engaged in Orwellian behavior toward Israel. The Obama Administration, for example, has used U.S. funds to actively intervene in the Israeli election process, a move that is the subject of a recently filed ACLJ lawsuit. Consistent with its Orwellian inclinations, the Obama Administration has unleashed an unprincipled effort to box in the incoming Trump Administration with a series of anti-Israel moves.

Indefensibly, such moves betray the values we share with Israel and the Jewish people. They also defy common sense. President Obama’s anti-Israel tantrum reifies what the Wall Street Journal calls “his extraordinary ability to transform matters of public policy into personal pique at adversaries” as part of “the international left’s implacable opposition to the Israeli state.”  The Obama Administration’s complicity in the passage of U.N. resolution 2334 also contradicts his 2011 statement at the U.N. General Assembly that “Ultimately, it is the Israelis and the Palestinians – not us – who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and on security, on refugees and Jerusalem.”

President Obama’s anti-Israel tantrum, however self-contradictory it may be, requires an uncompromising response. First, the American people must support efforts to defund the U.N. until it repeals UNSC resolution 2334. Second, the American people must vigorously oppose additional efforts by the Obama Administration to impede Israel’s ability to retain its sovereignty (including the West Bank in Palestine) as the national home of the Jewish people. This undeniable right is consistent with both the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, which explicitly encouraged “close settlement by Jews on the land,” and an impartial appreciation of biblical and global history. This aligns with our international legal arguments we have made in defense of Israel for years at the U.N., at the International Criminal Court (ICC), and anywhere Israel faces lawfare, terrorism, and anti-Semitism.

Since the Obama Administration’s failure to veto U.N. resolution 2334 represents the triumph of cowardice over principle and foreshadows potential future diplomatic betrayals during its waning days, the American Center for Law and Justice will remain vigilant.

We will not retreat.

We have mobilized a root and branch effort in Washington, at the U.N. and in Jerusalem to repudiate this resolution and carry the fight to Israel’s enemies including the permanent, global, virulently anti-Israel caucus at the United Nations.

In fact, yesterday, we filed a major lawsuit against President Obama’s State Department to expose its efforts to fund the attempted political takedown of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. When the story broke that the Obama Administration was funneling money to anti-Netanyahu forces in Israel under the guise of humanitarian grant funds, the Obama Administration denied it had intended to “take down” Israel’s Prime Minister – even though that is what the fund recipients told the Obama Administration it was going to do.

When confronted by Senate investigators, President Obama’s State Department denied any knowledge that the generous grant funds it was doling out to leftist, pro-Palestinian activists was being used to manipulate the Israeli elections.  It was hard to believe then, it’s impossible to believe now. President Obama’s true colors now show.

We made legal demands for records and communications surrounding the ordeal, and unsurprisingly, the Obama Administration ignored us. So we are taking them to court – again. We will not let the Obama Administration get away with its calculated, inexcusable, and now obvious contempt for Israel, America’s greatest ally. Our lawsuit will further expose the Obama Administration’s attempts to subvert Israel – attempts that go hand-in-hand with President Obama’s betrayal of Israel at the UN.

We are defending Israel in the realm of policy and public opinion. Now we are defending Israel in U.S. federal court.

Join us. Defend Israel.