Omri Ceren Breaks Down the Diplomatic Fallout of UNSC’s Condemnation of Israel

 

Omri Ceren (@CerenOmri) is the Managing Director for Press and Strategy at The Israel Project (TIP) and he had this to say on Twitter about how unprecedented UNSCR 2334 is, what a major break it represents from long-term American policy, and how it treats “international law.” (Scare quotes because it’s a made-up term that now means what ever we can use to bash Jews and protect real human rights abusers.)

Can’t believe this has to be done, but here’s why anyone who compares Obama knifing Israel to previous US diplomacy is a hack or an idiot 1/

UNSCR 2334 existential not political. Past UN res’s about Israel doing X. 2334 ex post facto rewrites intl law about what Jewish state is 2/

First let’s do intl: 2334 flips intl precedents. So (a) it’s diplo assault on Israel (b) shows in principle goalposts can always shift 3/

(a): 2334 flips West Bank legal status: Jewish state had great claim (mandate, San Remo, Sevres) vs weak Arab claim (bc 1948 rejection) 4/

(b): 2334 shows hostile anti-Israel diplomats cant move goalposts any time. If 1948 lines can be imposed, why not 1947 lines? Or earlier? 5/

Now let’s do domestic: 2334 flips US policy, which has never said settlements “illegal.” ALL past resolutions were in line with US policy 6/

2334 also nukes 25 years of US diplo assurances to Israel, bought with Israeli concessions, that US would prevent EXACTLY ALL THIS 7/

Specifically it nukes core Oslo assurance that West Bank status would be decided bilat – so dissolves peace process. Which ALSO means… 8/

… that it sets 25 years of US Middle East diplomacy to 0. Now this part gets very specific: For US diplomats Mideast WAS LITERALLY Oslo 9/

Dissolving Olso, which 2334 did, is (sorry) ontological issue for US

Other procedural diffs inside UNSC room, but details. NEVER EVER did US approve UN res reversing US policy and intl law. Obama just did 11/

If you read someone saying or tweeting that any Pres ever did anything comparable to what Obama just did, that person is hack or idiot 12/12

Published in Foreign Policy, Politics
Like this post? Want to comment? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

There are 11 comments.

Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.
  1. Ray Kujawa Coolidge
    Ray Kujawa
    @RayKujawa

    Amazing that someone has been able to lay out several facts on this issue using Twitter. I think I learned something. This resolution doesn’t do anything to move things forward. The P’s showed their insincerity to talk in 2014 when they did nothing while Israel put the settlements on hold. And then when Israel resumed the settlements, the P’s insisted again on the settlements ceasing before they talked. They have no intention of negotiating anything with Israel. The P’s and their supporters are the obstacle to peace. Israel is not the obstacle to peace. The P’s are not being held responsible for their actions, and O is giving them a pass.

    • #1
  2. Topher Inactive
    Topher
    @Topher

    Is anyone advocating that all Arab settlements within Israeli side of 1967 cease-fire line are illegal?

    • #2
  3. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    We have just learned that Obama, through Biden (who has connections and through his son, family business interests in Ukraine) prevailed upon Ukraine to be one of the 14 Security Council members who were accomplices in this atrocity.

    Ukraine’s decision to vote in favor of the resolution appears to demonstrate the extent to which US President Barack Obama was behind the decision.

    According to officials in Israel, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, a Jew who is thought of as one of Israel’s main supporters, wanted that his country not be involved in the consultations held on the resolution.

    However, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko decided to vote in favor of its passage following a telephone conversation with US Vice President Joe Biden.

    “The text of the resolution is balanced,” Kiev asserted. “It calls for taking measures necessary for peaceful solution from both Israeli and Palestinian sides: Israel should stop its settlement activities while Palestinian authorities – to take effective measures toward fighting against terrorism.”

     

    • #3
  4. ToryWarWriter Coolidge
    ToryWarWriter
    @ToryWarWriter

    I think Trump will use this to pull out of the UN.

    • #4
  5. JustmeinAZ Member
    JustmeinAZ
    @JustmeinAZ

    ToryWarWriter:I think Trump will use this to pull out of the UN.

    View comment in context.

    Let’s hope so.

    • #5
  6. Roberto Inactive
    Roberto
    @Roberto

    ToryWarWriter:I think Trump will use this to pull out of the UN.

    View comment in context.

    I rather doubt we will be that lucky still for now I’ll settle for cutting its funding and it looks like we may get that.

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) vowed Saturday to not allow the U.S. to give money to the United Nations until it reversed its Friday decision forcing an end to Israeli settlements.

    Cruz tweeted that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding, “No US $ for UN until reversed.”

    Cruz’s tweet echoes the sentiments of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said Saturday he would propose halting U.S. funding to the U.N. as well.

    “It’s that important to me,” Graham told CNN. “This is a road we haven’t gone down before. If you can’t show the American people that international organizations can be more responsible, there is going to be a break. And I am going to lead that break.”

    • #6
  7. EugeneKriegsmann Member
    EugeneKriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    The problem now, as I perceive it, is that Obama isn’t done doing mischief. He has a little less than a month left to his presidency and a good deal more malice towards both Israel and the American people who elected Trump as his successor. Obama has repeatedly demonstrated his petty vindictiveness. By attacking Israel in this manner he is doing what any  bully would do, going after the “defenseless child” of his intended target. Where Republicans and supporters of Trump are feeling pretty invulnerable at this point, Obama is attacking the places that he thinks will cause them the most pain, and where they have the least ability to defend or strike back. There is no question that he has had very little but animus towards Israel and Netanyahu, but his choosing to not only allow the  resolution to go through, but to actively participate in its creation and the insuring of its being presented to the Security Council demonstrate a level of anger and hostility that can only be seen as having been generated by a serious blow to his enormous ego. The attacks on him by former supporters and active Democrats can only spur him to further acts of revenge. He is and always has been a petty little man with a voluminous ego, the kind of man who, once afronted, will seek to do irreparable harm to those he perceives as his attackers.

    • #7
  8. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Eugene Kriegsmann: The problem now, as I perceive it, is that Obama isn’t done doing mischief

    View comment in context.

    Updates on the mischief:

    An Egyptian paper published what it claims are the transcripts of meetings between top US and Palestinian officials that, if true, would corroborate Israeli accusations that the Obama administration was behind last week’s UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements….

    At the same time, a report in an Israeli daily Tuesday night pointed to Britain helping draft the resolution and high drama in the hours leading up to the vote, as Jerusalem tried to convince New Zealand to bury the Security Council measure.

    In a meeting in early December with top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, US Secretary of State John Kerry told the Palestinians that the US was prepared to cooperate with the Palestinians at the Security council, Israel’s Channel 1 TV said, quoting the Egyptian Al-Youm Al-Sabea newspaper.

    Also present at the meeting were US National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and Majed Faraj, director of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service.

    Kerry is quoted as saying that he could present his ideas for a final status solution if the Palestinians pledge they will support the proposed framework.

    It should be noted that Haaretz’ reporting and opinion pieces praise Kerry’s actions as “trying to save Israel from itself” and condemn Netanyahu’s response to the UN vote as “worse than BDS;” this is typical of thinking on the Israeli left.

    • #8
  9. EugeneKriegsmann Member
    EugeneKriegsmann
    @EugeneKriegsmann

    Ontheleftcoast: this is typical of thinking on the Israeli left.

    View comment in context.

    I am sure that there were Jews who marched into the gas chambers of NAZI Germany who believed it was their own fault  and not that of the poor, misunderstood Germans. Jewish anti-semitism is old and well documented.

    • #9
  10. Ray Kujawa Coolidge
    Ray Kujawa
    @RayKujawa

    Ontheleftcoast:We have just learned that Obama, through Biden (who has connections and through his son, family business interests in Ukraine) prevailed upon Ukraine to be one of the 14 Security Council members who were accomplices in this atrocity.

    Ukraine’s decision to vote in favor of the resolution appears to demonstrate the extent to which US President Barack Obama was behind the decision.

    According to officials in Israel, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, a Jew who is thought of as one of Israel’s main supporters, wanted that his country not be involved in the consultations held on the resolution.

    However, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko decided to vote in favor of its passage following a telephone conversation with US Vice President Joe Biden.

    “The text of the resolution is balanced,” Kiev asserted. “It calls for taking measures necessary for peaceful solution from both Israeli and Palestinian sides: Israel should stop its settlement activities while Palestinian authorities – to take effective measures toward fighting against terrorism.”

    View comment in context.

    Nothing will be solved by this, it will result in an endless series of argument and recriminations. The two measures aren’t equally measurable. Settlement activity can easily be measured. “Effective” measures against terrorism are very debatable. They could wave a few token gestures or they could comprehensively cease the indoctrination of their children. And when terrorism happens, they will say they did this or that and the net result is ineffective measures. This is little more than a war of words on the State of Israel, not even a slap on the wrist for the P’s.

    • #10
  11. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    Ray Kujawa: Nothing will be solved by this, it will result in an endless series of argument and recriminations.

    View comment in context.

    That’s not a bug of this resolution, that’s a feature. It’s a smokescreen for antisemitism. It’s also the OIC flexing its muscle.

    • #11
Become a member to join the conversation. Or sign in if you're already a member.