"... the Obama administration on Friday allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction,"
the NYT reports.
The administration’s decision not to veto the measure.... broke a longstanding American policy of serving as Israel’s sturdiest diplomatic shield at the United Nations....
The vote came a day after Mr. Trump personally intervened to keep the measure, proposed by Egypt, from coming up for a vote on Thursday, as scheduled. Mr. Trump’s aides said he had spoken to Mr. Netanyahu. Both men also spoke to the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Egypt postponed the vote.
Trump responded:
Posts
71 comments:
I want to thank Obama for confirming permanently that voting for Trump was the correct decision.
#notmypresident
#antisemitism
Jan 20 cannot come soon enough.
Last night on Fox, Alan Dershowitz made the case that this Obama decision could be damaging for years or decades into the future, without any chance (or much chance) for a President Trump to reverse it. It is a UN resolution; it isn't any old executive order. Trump can't do a new UN resolution with a stroke of his pen. Dershowitz also made the case that even a president-elect Hillary Clinton would have been calling Obama this week and begging him to not take this step.
I'm no Israel expert; not even close. But this might be the most anti-Israeli thing that Obama has ever done, in an eight-year run of anti-Israeli things.
Trump can declare America will withdraw from the UN. That would be a Trumpist thing to do, and the right thing to do.
Obama has a real stick up his ass when it comes to Israel.
It's almost like that Barack hates Israel.
Almost. Heh.
Just went to the sites for Mother Jones, The Nation, HuffPo, New Republic, Vanity Fair. Not a mention of this anywhere. You'd think they'd be jubilant.
"I want to thank Obama for confirming permanently that voting for Trump was the correct decision."
My thought exactly.
Netanyahu is the only world leader who didn't bow down and worship our man-child president. Obama waited until the curtain was closing on Act 5 to take a dump on him.
What an arse.
Obama is one of the pettiest people I've ever seen.
@ Amadeus 48 ...
As I wrote today, "President Obama and his administration are working feverishly to sow as much evil as they possibly can before leaving office next month. The only consolation --- and it's a big one, thank God --- is that the incoming Trump regime will be like firecrackers in reversing every piece of blasted sod initiatives from this morally regressive refuse-stain of a presidency".
Look at the current membership of the Security Council. After Member Egypt withdrew plan to introduce, 4 other temporary members went ahead including New Zealand. The 14 votes in favor of the resolution included UK, France, Spain, Japan. The US is so far out on its own on the Israel-Palestine problem it's crazy. But I agree had Clinton elected she would have pushed for a veto and Obama would have gone along likely. This is a sign he sees absolutely no hope for progress from Trump-Netenyahu combo with settlement-pushing US ambassador and imminent move of US Embassy to Jerusalem, where it will be all alone in embassy row.
Well, they said that if I voted for Trump that we would have a racist, anti-semitic president who would stab Israel in the back!
And they were right!
More seriously, Ann misses the real part of this story: that the Obama administration actually wrote this resolution and just had someone else suggest it.
And the text of the resolution demands that Israel give up the Wailing Wall to the Palestinians who will no doubt destroy it. So Obama is demanding that the Jews destroy the last remnants of their Temple.
Why didn't the UK veto this thing?
--Vance
"Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela "
I hope Trump makes these countries pay for this vile act. Venezuela cannot be harmed as they are well into a national death spiral but the others could be dealt with. Senegal might be a nice place for the UN to move after they are expelled from the high value real estate they occupy in New York City. That building would make very nice condos.
A 45% tariff on Malaysia imports might be looked at.
readering is here to present the hard left Obama side.
"As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th."
Not unless the United States resigns from the United Nations or we turn off the pipeline that provides an incredible $3 biliion in payments toward the UN operating budget ($600 million) and the rest toward so-called peacekeeping by the worthless organization that doesn't even try to keep peace. We pay more toward this worthless effort than 185 other countries combined.
The Kiwi's voted for this resolution? They are English colonists who stole some pretty damn valuable real estate from native Polynesians, but now they say the Israeli occupied territories are illegal. There is no way this resolution is not anti-Jewish.
Some people have wondered for years whether Obama is a closeted Muslim. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. If he were actually a Muslim, what would he be doing differently.
Four more weeks of this jackass is just too much.
Dear American Jews, please pay attention to who treats you like a friend, and who doesn't.
I felt the Star Wars series did a going job of representing the United Nations with the Galactic Republic.
Obama possesses that behind closed doors passive aggressive feminine toughness.
lol. Even Chuck Schumer criticized this.
What a fair press would call "Severe bipartisan criticism of the Obama Administration."
btw, let's remember that the Obama Administration DID veto a similar resolution when it came up in 2011. That is, when they still had a campaign to run in 2012.
WTF is the purpose of the UN, anyway? They certainly don't mediate international disputes though they love passing resolutions. Who needs them?
btw, let's remember that the Obama Administration DID veto a similar resolution when it came up in 2011. That is, when they still had a campaign to run in 2012.
Yeah, he's a lot more flexible now.
Very good point about the 2011 veto, Chuck.
mockturtle, the purpose of the UN is its own continuation. It does not serve international diplomacy. The UN is a scar on diplomacy.
Craven and shameful. Congress needs to impeach Obama for this. First thing Monday.
Kiwis - it is to laugh. Like they have clean hands.
Almost every nation on the planet got to where they are today by force.
Israel is almost alone in that the nation was originally authorized by international action, instead of raw, usually military, power.
Anybody remember, way back when, when Trump critics on the left were cautioning Jewish voters about what an anti-Semite Steve Benen was?
With friends like Obama, who needs enemies?
Glenn Greenwald ✔ @ggreenwald
It is rather bizarre that Trump, after running on "America First," wants to isolate US from the entire world to defend Israeli occupation... https://twitter.com/joeu02/status/812401793690980356 …
4:02 PM - 23 Dec 2016
177 177 Retweets 294 294 likes
Yeah, "occupation" as in "To the victors go the spoils."
Building settlements is as American as populating the West.
If the local tribes give you any shit, massacre them.
The reason Wisconsin is even a state, is because settlers killed all the natives, or ran them north to Canada.
You have to put these things in perspective.
Israel is almost alone in that the nation was originally authorized by international action, instead of raw, usually military, power.
And by the UN before it became the third world.
Building settlements is as American as populating the West.
If the local tribes give you any shit, massacre them.
Some posters are so dumb that I wonder how they know how to turn on a computer. The Amerindians had been isolated form Europe and Asia for 10,000 years. They had no immunity to old world disease. Spanish soldiers found empty villages that had never been visited. The smallpox and measles had gone much faster than the Spanish.
The New World got some revenge as syphilis had never been seen in Europe before Columbus.
The same phenomenon is why Africa was not colonized until the 20th century. Diseases.
Read "The 10,000 Year Explosion.
Learn something.
There are 366 million Arabs in the world and 16 million Jews. The Arabs can't oust the Jews from Israel so they just propose these whiny resolutions. Obama voted present, which is why he is weak.
Learn something
I do. Every year I drive through the Indian Reservations on the way to Yellowstone.
Arabs are a conquered people. They were under the thumb of the Turks for
400 years. The Egyptians declared some independence 50 years earlier with the protection of France and England. But they couldn't oust the Turks without the help of England.
Smarmy little man. Flicking boggers to the end. It's too bad we can't send him and the 58 million "folks" who voted for him to Canada.
The settlements do need to stop, but for entirely different reasons. Further, they aren't going to stop by pressure from the UN, that's not Israel's way.
The problem is that Israel has an extremely conservative faction that breeds like rabbits and doesn't do shit. It's a small faction, but wields tremendous political power. Any Israeli prime minister has to deal with this group and it's very complicated. Being ordered by avowed enemies of their country to change is precisely the wrong way to go about effecting change.
I should add that these settlements are not exactly on prime real estate, to say the very least. Quite the opposite.
I don't know the history on this, but one would think there would be a tradition of outgoing Presidents not going out of their way to queer the play of incoming Presidents.
Do you suppose it stings Obama to think that if he'd had the huevos to fight hard against a Hillary! candidacy, then a hardier Democrat would have beaten Trump?
Of course, then Sasha and Malia would have had no chance of landing mid-six-figure entry level jobs at the Clinton Global Initiative right out of college, but their chances don't look too good now, either.
Israel can continue to ignore it ( much like America will now ignore the democrat media ) and trump will just veto and ignore any actions requested from it. Actively declaring he will ignore it.
The Arabs lost the six day war. Israel owns the settlements. The land belongs to those who conquer and control it. The Palestinians have some land in Gaza and some in the West Bank. As typical of Arabs, they can't develop. Trump should offer to build hotels, casinos, and golf courses for them since they are incapable of doing anything but whining and firing weapons they can't make for themselves.
What a disgusting move. And cowardly. This will damage the region for years and he does it just before he leaves. Sick bastard.
We don't need to withdraw from the UN, all we need to do is audit it. And raise fees.
I can't believe we are still hearing about this stuff. I had to go and check my calendar to make sure I am in the 21st century.
Obama should recognize Palestine as a country on his way out the door instead of voting present.
I believe the correct response is you and what army?
This resolution does not just pertain to the settlements. The Resolution declares any Israeli presence beyond the 1949 armistice line (the so-called pre-1967 line) illegal. That means Israeli control of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City would be illegal, as would the presence of Jews in the Jewish Quarter. It also would mean Israeli control of the Western Wall would be illegal.
The idea that Clinton would have been against Obama's abstaining on the vote is preposterous. Do you think that Huma would have counseled her to veto the resolution? Remember that Clinton was for the Iranian agreement.
January 20th cannot come some enough. Obama is doing as much damage as he can to America and its allies in the remaining time he has in office. He is the worst President we have ever had by far. All Jews who voted for him should understand that they bear some responsibility for the actions of this petty and evil man.
Who cares what the resolution says or claims to do. The countries that trade with Israel will continue to trade with Israel. Israel has a good economy and excellent military and intelligence services along with nuclear weapons.
Steve Bannon, not Steve Benen. Wow what a weird typo. There is a Steve Benen, incidentally. He is the polar opposite of Steve Bannon. A left wing blogger and MSNBC contributor.
All US presidents since '67 have been against settlements. All US Secretaries of State have as well. I wonder what Tillerson will say to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject.
The Israelis is not going to pay any attention to this resolution any more than the "Arabs" will pay any attention to U.N. resolutions that go against them. It makes no difference except for the diplomatic jabber and "world opinion" for which and 2 bucks you can get a cup of coffee at the truckstop.
Ariel Sharon put an end to the "two state solution" 30 years ago, and the Jews and "Arabs" of Palestine will continue to shoot and blow each other up until they decide that enough is enough and they join in one more or less secular state, whatever they choose to call it.
Obama gave the order as a Christmas gift to Kerry.
Foreign Relations Committee I meant.
Can anyone find a link to the actual resolution?
Ya notice that this vote took place after the election?
I imagine that this vote would not have made it any easier for the Dems to shake down their Jewish donor base for the standard 1/4 to 1/3 of the total haul the Democrats bring in.
To quote Insty: "Another group of rubes self-identifies".
I wonder what Tillerson will say to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject.
What do you expect ? I think he might just invite them to say something. The Democrats will likely stay very quiet.,
"Trump should offer to build hotels, casinos, and golf courses for them since they are incapable of doing anything but whining and firing weapons they can't make for themselves."
There were investors in 2000 all ready to do this and Arafat walked away. Read Denis Ross's piece in the LA Times about it.
The passive aggressive President. The controversial action is a nonaction, after the election, and contrary to the expressed policy of the incoming administration.
The Obama nastiness is really coming out here in the lame duck period.
It really does piss me off that the Obama administration is doing this right now. They've had eight years in which they set the policy and didn't want to deal with the repercussions for this.
Now Trump has to deal with the consequences of a policy he doesn't support, which the Obama administration wasn't brave enough to support themselves!
Obama always presents himself as the adult in the room, but adults don't do things like this.
It's true, as Dershowitz said, that it's hard to reverse the resolution now that it's in place.
However, we really should try -- by turning off the money spigot until such time as it is repealed.
At the very least, $8 billion a year (what we usually pass to the UN in total) would more than cover the high-end estimates for the construction costs of Trump's wall on the Mexican border over the next four years.
We, of course, should also cut off our contributions to the Palestinian Authority -- $300 million/year -- until they demand repeal of the resolution. We can send that money to the settlements themselves for expansion.
Dear American Jews, please pay attention to who treats you like a friend, and who doesn't.
I think what is both frustrating and tragic is that so many Jews, even many Zionist Jews, supported Obama over McCain and Romney, and Crooked Hillary over Trump. They should know better, and probably do. But have to vote for the Dem, regardless. Mostly, I think that it is a group solidarity thing. I do expect to have some interesting discussions with some of my Jewish friends in the near future, and will let them try to convince me why their votes weren't emotional and counter-productive.
The usefulness of the UN ended decades ago. I pray that Trump puts an end to it.
Fuck the UN, cut the funding and move it to Libya. We don't owe the Palestinians dog shit or the sweat off our balls, they have have sided with America's enemies for at least the last 100 years in every conflict.
American Jews sucked Obama's dick and rimmed him for eight years, he didn't respect them in the mourning.
Senator Schumer what's that running down your chin?
"Blogger Michael K said...
Israel is almost alone in that the nation was originally authorized by international action, instead of raw, usually military, power.
And by the UN before it became the third world.
Building settlements is as American as populating the West.
If the local tribes give you any shit, massacre them.
Some posters are so dumb that I wonder how they know how to turn on a computer. The Amerindians had been isolated form Europe and Asia for 10,000 years. They had no immunity to old world disease. Spanish soldiers found empty villages that had never been visited. The smallpox and measles had gone much faster than the Spanish.
The New World got some revenge as syphilis had never been seen in Europe before Columbus.
The same phenomenon is why Africa was not colonized until the 20th century. Diseases.
Read "The 10,000 Year Explosion. "
Actually, they found evidence of congenital syphillis on the bones of a couple children in Pompei. They died over 1400 years before Columbus.
And Israel was indeed founded on "raw military power." Read the history of the 1948 war.
Not much of a power compared to the major powers, but the Jews (not Israel yet) indeed had superiority in both manpower and organization plus fighting for something they believed in.
The "Arabs" were larger countries, but brand new after the post-war liberations and had hardly figured out how to govern themselves yet, and they had only puny military forces with little resources, since the Cold War had not yet begun, and no one wanted to provide the former colonies with anything.
I have provided Obama's representative at the UN (Useless Nations) of the nations which do NOT have an extradition treaty with the USA.
The only possible way to bring Middle East Peace is to implement the one state solution. Put Israel in control of everything. It is the only peaceful civilized group in the region. Egypt is actually looking a little grown up now but they are still less than 5 years out from their last genocidal action on the Copts.
Under the One State Solution gay people wont be thrown off roofs, little girls wont be forced to marry their rapists to protect family honor, and little girls wont be held down on a table by their female relatives and have their clitoris's and labias cut off with dull rusty knives, and little boys wont be forced to be permanent glory holes for priests like they are now with the barbarians currently in charge.
The Middle East deserves better leadership.
I don't think this is a new proposal by the way. I think several people have proposed it before.
I love Trump's comment. Let the parasites at the UN stew over what exactly he might mean.
Chuck wrote, "It is a UN resolution; it isn't any old executive order. Trump can't do a new UN resolution with a stroke of his pen." That is true. However, one concrete way that Trump could demonstrate the US's rejection of this resolution would be to move the US embassy to Old Jerusalem as soon as possible. That now seems pretty likely and ironically, 20 years from now we'll be giving Obama credit for forcing Trump to do that.
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