Thursday, December 22, 2016

Report: Israel reached out to Trump for help on UN vote









...Just a couple of months ago, there was written about how an Obama move was expected after the election. For example, on October 6, 2016, ◼ The Times of Israel reported:
An Israel official on Thursday deepened the latest dispute with the Obama administration over settlement-building by charging that “disproportionate criticism” from Washington over the latest construction plans is “an alibi” to cover plans by President Barack Obama to take anti-Israel actions in the final weeks of his presidency.
◼ The NY Post Editorial Board wrote on October 12, 2016, ◼ Why Israel fears Obama’s last days:
Israel faces a unique window of danger from Nov. 9 to Jan. 20: What might President Obama do in his final days in office to slam the Jewish state?

Start with Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent flat refusal to promise a US veto on any upcoming anti-Israel resolution in the UN Security Council.

On Saturday, Haaretz reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Kerry he’s counting on Washington to stick to its policy of nixing anti-Israel resolutions. Kerry’s reply: The administration has yet to make a decision on the matter.

For Kerry to leave any doubt that America would shield Israel at the United Nations is bad enough. But concerns about what Team Obama might do go far beyond that.

In a recent Bloomberg column, Eli Lake reports on the threat of “a last-minute [Obama] speech, an executive order or UN action” at Israel’s expense.
On October 27, Charles Krauthammer predicted the same, ◼ Is Obama Preparing a Parting Shot at Israel?:....

Today, Obama’s plan almost was realized, and would have been but for the intervention of Donald Trump.

In a surprise move, Egypt announced on almost no notice that it would put to a Security Council vote a resolution that would have declared any and all Jewish presence beyond the 1949 armistice line illegal, the impediment to peace, and subject to further enforcement action. One provision in the resolution, demanding that nations distinguish between Israel and “occupied Palestinian territories” would be a boost for the emerging European labeling and boycott of items produced in the “West Bank.”

The resolution is not a mere expression of continued support for a two-state solution, it is imposing a solution based on a distortion of history.

But then Israel went into overdrive, and Donald Trump came to the rescue.

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