By Shmuel Sackett
In the last few days I have read over 100 emails, Facebook posts and articles that had one common denominator; Obama betrayed Israel in the recent UN vote.
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.
For the last month, all we talked about in Israel was a town called “Amona” and how the Israeli government plans on destroying the 40 Jewish homes that have been built there. The families who live in Amona are all religious Zionists; the men served in the IDF, fought for Israel and risked their lives. They built homes in an area that has not seen more than a goat in over 2,000 years, yet the Israeli government calls their settlement illegal… the same words used by the UN in their recent vote!!
Three weeks ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu gave an interview on “60 Minutes” to Leslie Stahl. When asked about his position on a Palestinian state, Bibi said the following; “Two states for two peoples. That’s where I’m focused. I’d like to have President Trump, when he gets into the White House, help me work on that. I’d like to see if the Arab states can help me achieve that. It’s a new reality. A new possibility.”
That was an exact quote from Israel’s Prime Minister… so why is everyone screaming about a UN vote that said the same thing?
Don’t believe me? Well, did you actually read the text of UN Resolution 2334 of December 23, 2016? I did, and will quote some relevant parts here. As you will see, every word below – every single word – is the position of the current Israeli government led by Netanyahu, Bennett, Lieberman and Deri.
The resolution begins by calling Israel an “occupying power”. My non-politically correct comment is that the UN is right… we ARE an “occupying power”. Since Netanyahu, Bennett, Lieberman and Deri are ALL against complete annexation of the land… we are therefore occupying someone’s else’s land! Like it or not, that makes us an “occupying power”!
Naftali Bennett and his “Jewish Home” party call for the annexation of Ma’ale Adumim and then down the road a few other areas, but he has stated over and again that “Area A” should remain in the control of the Palestinians. This means that even Bennett wants to keep Israel as an “occupying power” … which is exactly what the UN stated… so why should Obama have vetoed that???