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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.)
Published in Foreign Policy, PoliticsCan’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
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.
Is anyone advocating that all Arab settlements within Israeli side of 1967 cease-fire line are illegal?
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.
I think Trump will use this to pull out of the UN.
Let’s hope so.
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.
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.
Updates on the mischief:
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.
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.
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.
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.