Israel Denounces “Shameful” Obama Administration

Paul wrote yesterday about how President-elect Trump went to bat for Israel, opposing an anti-settlement United Nations resolution that the Obama administration had decided not to veto. Today Israel’s government shed more light on what happened, and made clear its feelings about the Obama administration:

An Israeli official on Friday accused President Barack Obama of colluding with the Palestinians in a “shameful move against Israel at the U.N.” after learning the White House did not intend to veto a Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem the day before.

“President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the U.N.,” the official said. “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 occupied Palestinian territory,” he said calling it “an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN.”

That is, I think, a fair characterization.

Earlier he said Israel’s prime minister turned to President-elect Donald Trump to help head off the critical U.N. resolution.
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The Israeli official’s admission marked a final chapter in the icy relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama over the last eight years, and signaled an era of close ties between Israel and the incoming Trump administration.

That is just one of many things to like about the Trump administration that is starting to take shape. More:

Trump has signaled he will be far more sympathetic to Israel. His campaign platform made no mention of the establishment of a Palestinian state, a core policy objective of Democratic and Republican presidents over the past two decades. He also has vowed to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that would put the U.S. at odds with the Palestinians and almost the entire remainder of the international community, and his pick for ambassador to Israel, Jewish-American lawyer David Friedman, is a donor and vocal supporter of the settlements.

The AP also reports that, while Egypt has withdrawn its anti-Israel resolution in the face of Trump’s opposition, another country may sponsor it, and it might yet come up for a vote before President Obama leaves office–a relief that can’t come too soon.

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