You want to guarantee a peaceful two-state solution? Convene a Security Council meeting on how to dislodge Hamas from Gaza, and you’ll have one.
By MARVIN HIER, ABRAHAM COOPERUpdated: JANUARY 2, 2017 10:07UN security council votes on resolution 2334(photo credit: REUTERS)
The latest diplomatic ambush of Israel was made possible only by the US’s historic reversal of its decades-long Mideast policy of vetoing one-sided anti-Israel initiatives at the UN Security Council.US President Barack Obama’s “abstention” was actually an endorsement of an onerous, one-sided resolution that, among other items, defines Judaism’s holiest site as “occupied Palestinian territory” and encourages nations to undertake the boycott of goods made by Jews in east Jerusalem and the West Bank.Make no mistake. This new resolution – developed with the Obama administration’s knowledge and some say with its collusion – is much worse and more dangerous than the United Nation’s notorious 1975 “Zionism equals racism” resolution.It radically undermines, if not destroys, Israel’s relationship with the UN. It makes any role for the UN in future Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations impossible.It has effectively removed any incentive for the Palestinian Authority to have faceto- face negotiations with the Jewish state.Indeed, there are stories suggesting that US Secretary of State John Kerry will present a detailed map that would dictate a two-state solution.Not a word from Obama and his secretary of state, not a peep from the hypocrites seated around the Security Council, about the real obstacle to a two-state solution – the continued control of Hamas in Gaza.In their own countries, the French, British, German, Italian and Ukrainian security forces spend days and nights searching every street corner for suspected terrorists threatening their citizenry. Yet the mantra of what is blocking the solution of the Israel- Palestine conflict remains one word – not “terrorism” but “settlements.”While these civilian communities are overwhelmingly populated by peaceful citizens, every carefully crafted diplomatic initiative judiciously omits any mention of one other word, “Hamas,” whose raison d’être is the complete destruction of the State Israel.You want to guarantee a peaceful two-state solution? Convene a Security Council meeting on how to dislodge Hamas from Gaza, and you’ll have one.Before buying Obama and Kerry’s road map, we would suggest checking with the millions of Syrians gassed, shot and dislocated, all the while Kerry presented one useless piece of paper after another, in search of a “peaceful solution” for the people of Aleppo.That these bare-knuckle anti-Israel maneuvers are launched against America’s only reliable Middle East ally by its longtime ally is despicable enough, but that it has been launched at 11:59 p.m. of the Obama administration is almost beyond belief.Israel, its friends and allies across America are grateful that President-elect Trump has said that “things will be different” after January 20. We look forward to his dispatching our new ambassador to Israel to start working in Jerusalem as the new US Embassy is finally built in the eternal capital of the Jewish people.In the meantime, the American people have a right to know where our senators and congressmen, Democratic and Republican, stand on the Obama UN gambit. Is his vision shared by any of our elected officials? We all have a right to know whether other decision-makers consider the Western Wall – our Kotel – to be located on stolen property.And with 200 disputed territories around the globe, is it moral or antisemitic to focus exclusively on only this one? During 2017, both the UN and UNESCO will have new leaders taking the helm.They might want to consider the price of continuing one-sided bullying of Israel by the United Nations. They should reflect on the fact that the US has refused to pay $400 million in dues to UNESCO, because its acceptance of “Palestine” as a member state violated a US statute signed into law by Democrat president Bill Clinton. If the UN, under new leadership, continues its nonstop demonizing of the Jewish state, we hope that the new Trump administration will seriously consider endorsing Sen.Lindsey Graham’s threatened bill to downsize the US’s oversized annual financial contribution.As for Obama and Kerry, their last-minute UN gambit seeks to add a fourth “achievement” to their Middle East legacy. Here are the other three: 1. Failure to destroy Islamic State, early and outright.2. The Iran nuclear deal, which has succeeded only in further empowering the Mullahocracy.3. Syrian redline debacle.The Jewish people are a people of memory.We approach our collective future with eyes wide open. No matter what the pressure, no Israeli government, left, right or center, will ever accept that our people’s sacred sites are built on stolen land; nor will it ever validate the lies denying the Jewish people’s 3,500- year link to the Holy Land – those very lies that now pass for historical fact at the United Nations.And rest assured that Israel will never walk the gangplank for the convenience of a hypocritical world.Rabbi Marvin Hier is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.