In one misguided moment, Obama has placed an indelible stain on historically- positive US–Israeli relations.
By STEWART WEISSBarack Obama(photo credit: REUTERS)
Despite long-standing US policy, despite President-elect Trump’s urgings, despite opposition within his own party, lame-duck President Barack Obama has decided to exact his pound of flesh and allow a one-sided, vicious, anti-Israel United Nations Security Council resolution to pass. Under the terms of this resolution, not only are Israeli settlements condemned, but Jewish authority over the Old City of Jerusalem – including the Western Wall – and the Golan Heights are called into question.This decision will fuel even more anti-Israel sentiment worldwide, strengthen the BDS movement and justify the Muslim world in their obscene refusal to acknowledge Jewish legitimacy in the Middle East.In one misguided moment, Obama has placed an indelible stain on historically- positive US–Israeli relations.>Just why Obama stabbed Israel in the back at his midnight hour is open to debate. Perhaps he wanted to pay back Netanyahu for having circumvented him and going directly to Congress to plead against the Iran deal. Perhaps he wanted to show Trump who is still boss until January 20.Perhaps he wanted to cement his legacy as a rogue chief executive unafraid to abandon America’s allies in order to further his farleft agenda.Whatever the case, with this cheap shot Obama has finally settled the debate as to whether he was a friend of Israel or not.This final act of chutzpah – ironically the title of the best-seller written by his ardent supporter Alan Dershowitz – has made crystal-clear just how deceitful and petty, not to mention anti-Israel, Obama really is.Predictably, the opposition in Israel has used this latest crisis to jump on Netanyahu, heaping abuse on the prime minister and blaming him for “alienating Israel’s best friend.” Rather than uniting behind the country’s leader, as better politicians would have done, they smell blood and sense an opportunity to besmirch the man they cannot seem to defeat at the polling place.By placing blame where it clearly does not belong, they muddy the issue and play right into Obama’s dirty hands. But it’s safe to say that Bibi will weather this storm as well, and that Israel will keep on moving forward long after Obama is just a distant, albeit bitter memory. Providentially, we will now have a much better friend in the White House, who wears just one face instead of two. It’s time to play the Trump card.The writer is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana.
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