By Shmuel Sackett, JEWISH LEADERSHIP BLOG

While I am no fan of Obama, I must state – loud and clear – that Obama did NOT betray Israel. Everything that happened in the UN on December 23 rd (the day of the vote) was due to one person and one person only. It was not Samantha Power, America’s ambassador to the UN. It was not John Kerry, America’s secretary of state and it was not even the President himself, Barak Obama. All of them were simply following the lead of the one person who is responsible for this terrible UN vote. His name is Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. Allow me to explain.
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By Michael Snyder, CLOTHESLINE

Multiple media outlets are reporting that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is finalizing a document that the Obama administration hopes will form the basis for a UN Security Council resolution that officially recognizes a Palestinian state before the end of Barack Obama’s term on January 20th.  This comes on the heels of the UN Security Council’s adoption of resolution 2334 on December 23rd.  That resolution declared that all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal, it stated that the Security Council recognizes the 1967 ceasefire lines as the border between Israel and “Palestine”, and it officially gave East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.  But it stopped short of formally recognizing a Palestinian state.  Resolution 2334 speaks of a Palestinian state in the future tense, but this new resolution that John Kerry is reportedly working on would give immediate and permanent UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state.
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By Morton A. Klein, ZOA

It was particularly painful and frustrating seeing President Barack Hussein Obama, Secretary Kerry and UN Envoy Samantha Power’s anti-Semitic act knifing Israel in the back at the UN – because so few people listened during the months when my organization (the Zionist Organization of America – ZOA) issued press releases, had press conferences, spoke on TV and radio, and published a full-page NYTimes and other nationwide newspaper ads warning that Obama would betray Israel at the UN after the 2016 election. (See ZOA’s October 29 New York Times Ad, entitled “After Elections Will Obama Betray Israel at the UN?”)

ZOA pleaded with other Jewish organizations and leaders and US Senators to join our campaign to stop Obama from doing grave damage to Israel at the UN – but those groups and leaders responded: “Don’t be silly, Obama will never do this.”
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By Prof Howard Adelman

On 23 December 2016, the UN Security Council passed UN Resolution 2334 included at the end of this blog. I have added the bolding. The relevant clause discussed in this blog is the first principle cited in the preamble and it reads as follows:

“Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirming, inter alia, the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force.”

Is it inadmissible to acquire territories by force?

The principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territories by force is embodied in UNSC Resolution 242 passed on 22 November 1967 in the aftermath of the Six Day War. Chapter VI of the UN Charter calls on member states to settle their disputes by peaceful methods (inquiries, negotiations, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, etc.) rather than war. In cases of failure to reach agreement, the issue must be referred to the Security Council. Chapter VI allows any state or consortium of states to bring a resolution before the UN Security Council. Note that Chapter VI only allows the UN to pass resolutions that are recommendations; resolutions that are passed, do not bind the member states engaged in a dispute. This is unlike resolutions passed under Chapter VII which are deemed obligatory. Resolutions under Chapter VI are commendatory, particularly since the UN has no enforcement mechanism.
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Trump must ensure there are consequences for supporting U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334.

By John Bolton, WSJ

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power abstaining, Dec. 23. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency

Last Friday, on the eve of Hanukkah and Christmas, Barack Obama stabbed Israel in the front. The departing president refused to veto United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334—a measure ostensibly about Israeli settlement policy, but clearly intended to tip the peace process toward the Palestinians. Its adoption wasn’t pretty. But, sadly, it was predictable.
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By Karin McQuinlan, AMERICAN THINKER

We’re now in the Trump era.  Time to drop the euphemisms.  Time for consequences.  Obama is not motivated by personal “pique” at Netanyahu.  Anti-Zionism is not personal; it is ideological, and it is widely popular among the Democrat leftist base.  Whereas anti-Semitism has shrunk to 3% of the white population in America, the ADL estimates that it is 22-36% among blacks and Latinos.  It is much higher than that among leftists.

Obama has chafed at the need to put on a mainstream front.  Now he is baring his leftist teeth.  The effect is more mean than frightening, and it will not have the outcome he wants.
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By Caroline B Glick,

Following outgoing US President Barack Obama’s assault on Israel at the UN Security Council last Friday, longtime UN observer Claudia Rossett wrote an important article at PJMedia where she recalled Kirkpatrick’s words.

In “How the PLO was legitimized,” published in Commentary, Kirkpatrick said that Yassir Arafat and the PLO worked “to come to power through international diplomacy – reinforced by murder.”

Kirkpatrick explained, “The long march through the UN has produced many benefits for the PLO. It has created a people where there was none; a claim where there was none. Now the PLO is seeking to create a state where there already is one. That will take more than resolutions and more than an ‘international peace conference.’ But having succeeded so well over the years in its campaign to delegitimize Israel, the PLO might yet also succeed in bringing the campaign to a triumphant conclusion, with consequences for the Jewish state that would be nothing short of catastrophic.”
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T. Belman. David Suissa is president of TRIBE Media Corp./Jewish Journal. I was pleased to see him take a strong stand against Obama’s abstention.

By David Suissa Jewish Journal of Los Angeles Dec. 25, 2016

After failing for eight years to get the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table, a lame duck President Barack Obama decided to punish Israel by allowing the United Nations Security Council to essentially declare Israel a criminal state.

By doing so, Obama has thrown Israel to the wolves– the wolves of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), of the International Criminal Court and of all international bodies and movements that have an interest in harming Israel.
The U.N. action follows Obama’s theme of blaming Israel for the failed peace process and rewarding the Palestinians for consistently saying no to everything—to concessions, to peace talks, to recognition of Israel.
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By Cliff Kincaid, RENEW AMERICA

Liberal Democrats have been so busy accusing Donald J. Trump of being a Russian agent that they have missed the real Russian agent on the international scene – Germany’s Angela Merkel. Her pro-Muslim immigration policies have not only destabilized Europe and increased terrorism, but have also facilitated the rise of the right-wing political parties our media have expressed alarm about.

Our media, for example, were shocked over a reported meeting between a leader of the Austrian Freedom Party and Trump’s national security adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn. The Austrian Freedom Party had signed a cooperation agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. Liberal Democrats saw this as more evidence of a pro-Russian bent by the incoming Trump administration.
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MOSAIC has an excellent series of articles on the subject which take some time to read. But they are still worth while.

Disorder in the court.
How Israel’s supreme court has effected its own constitutional revolution—and thereby undermined public confidence in the rule of law.

Response 1: The Problem Starts in the Knesset
Israel’s supreme court, and its overreaching and overactive judiciary in general, are not the cause but the symptom of a larger predicament.

Response 2 Israel’s Supreme Court Is Unusual, but Not That Unusual
The Jewish state is unique both in the strength of its democracy and in the self-assurance of the judges who challenge its democracy. It may be fated to remain so.

Response 3 The Erosion of Public Trust in Israel’s Judiciary Is Real—and Unusual
It’s hard to imagine a former justice in any other democracy trying to orchestrate a mass judicial resignation.

By Heshnmat Alavi, AMERICAN THINKER,

Following a historic period of perseverance, Syrian rebels and their families were forced to evacuate eastern Aleppo after its liberation back in 2012. An unjust, intense war was launched upon Aleppo by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and its proxy forces on the ground: Russia with its indiscriminate air strikes, and a lame-duck Syrian army of less than 20,000 deployable forces.

After more than 15 months continuous air raids and a long-lasting inhumane siege, Syrian rebels and civilians sealed an international agreement to depart Syria’s once economic and cultural hub.
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Citing Arab and Western sources, Netanyahu spokesperson says anti-settlement resolution ‘a deliberate push by the United States’

TOI

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said Israel has “rather ironclad information” that US President Barack Obama played an active role in both formulating and pushing for the UN Security Council resolution lambasting settlement construction, which passed on Friday after Washington decided not to exercise its veto and abstained.

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.
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By Ted Belman, AMERICAN THINKER

The Trump administration is dedicated to undoing the harm done by the Obama administration in the Iran Deal. To succeed, it needs the right team.

Most of you have never heard of the Center for Security Policy. That’s about to change because it has a prominent, if not dominant role, in the Trump transition team in matters relating to Iran, Russia, China and Islam. Gone from the corridors of power is the Brookings Institute who have a satellite office in Doha, Qatar and their Vice President and Director for Foreign Policy, Martin Indyk.  Soon, Pres Obama, the golfer, Sec’y Kerry, the bicyclist and Sec’y Clinton the failure will also be gone.
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[See also: Abbas confidant: We’ll take ‘hundreds’ of IDF soldiers to ICC this year]

Israel lost a significant battle on Friday. But the war over the ICC is still in play.

By Jonah Jeremy Bob, JPOST

How does the UN Security Council resolution declaring Israel’s settlements and buildings in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as illegal impact International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s decision about whether to dive deeper into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

First, the context. Bensouda opened a preliminary examination into alleged war crimes relating to the 2014 Gaza war and to the settlement enterprise in January 2015.

The million-dollar question has been whether she would move from a preliminary review to a full criminal investigation.
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Since Trump’s victory, there has been a sharp increase in building plans for the holy city, and the number of permits issued this year is more than triple than in 2015.

By Nir Hassan, HAARETZ

The Jerusalem Local Planning and Construction Committee is expected on Wednesday to approve permits to build 618 apartments in Jewish neighborhoods across the Green Line.

The meeting’s agenda was set before the United Nations Security Council resolution was passed on Friday condemning Israeli construction across the Green Line, including in East Jerusalem, as illegal.

But the new housing permits continue a trend this past year of a sharp increase in construction plans approved for East Jerusalem over the last two years.
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By Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY

The past month provides a textbook example of one of the major flaws in Western efforts to promote a two-state solution: a tendency to focus on all the wrong issues. The peace processing community is currently in a tizzy over something that ought to be an irrelevancy: the possibility that the Trump Administration might actually move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. But it had nothing whatsoever to say about a far more significant development: the outcome of recent elections for the governing organs of the Fatah party, aka Israel’s “peace partner.”

As Jonathan Tobin correctly pointed out earlier this week, the idea that moving the embassy would destroy the peace process is ludicrous. If Palestinians were willing to recognize Israel within the 1949 armistice lines, as they claim, they would have no reason to care where the embassy is located as long as it’s inside those lines, which the proposed Jerusalem locale would be.
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SPUTNIK

On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey discussed the situation in Syria, including Aleppo, in Moscow on Tuesday. Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed a joint statement to revive the political process to end the conflict in Syria.

Russia, Iran, Turkey Negotiating on Syria According to Russian top diplomat Sergei Lavrov, the three countries want to help Damascus and the Syrian opposition to come to an agreement. They will also act as a guarantor of this agreement.
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Citizens of Israel, I would like to reassure you. The resolution that was adopted yesterday at the United Nations is distorted and shameful but we will overcome it. The resolution determines that the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem is ‘occupied territory’. This is delusional.

The resolution determines that the Western Wall is ‘occupied territory’. This too is delusional. There is nothing more absurd than calling the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter occupied territory. There is also an attempt here, which will not succeed, to impose permanent settlement terms on Israel. You might recall that the last one who tried to do this was Carter, an extremely hostile president to Israel, and who just recently said that Hamas is not a terrorist organization. Carter passed sweeping decisions against us at the UN of a similar kind, and this was also unsuccessful. We opposed this and nothing happened.
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By Nadav Shragai, ISRAEL HAYOM

We can continue the argument over the settlements with the world of U.S. President Barack Obama and his supporters in legal and diplomatic language, rightfully protesting his hypocrisy and hoping for better under incoming President Donald Trump.

But all this cannot be done without screaming in the ears of the world — especially during Hanukkah — a single basic truth, as Simon the Hasmonean put it some 2,200 years ago: “We have not taken foreign territory or any alien property, but have occupied our ancestral heritage, for some time unjustly wrested from us by our enemies; now that we have a favorable opportunity, we are merely recovering our ancestral heritage” (Maccabees 1, 15:33-34).
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T. Belman. In 2011, a similar resolution was coming up before the UNSC and this letter was sent. In this case Obama vetoed it.

JCPA, Vol. 11, No. 1     May 29, 2011

Letter to the UN Secretary General:

• The following is a letter drafted jointly by lawyers of the Legal Forum for Israel and by Amb. Alan Baker, Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
• The letter is directed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and signed by jurists and international lawyers from around the world.
• The letter cautions the Secretary General as to the inherent illegality and harm to the UN and to the Middle East peace process which would be caused by the adoption of a resolution declaring a Palestinian state and determining its borders.

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