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A Hanukkah Message to the UN Security Council
I actually think it’s poetic. As Hanukkah, a festival of Jewish resistance, approaches, the world turns on the Jewish state and a former ally shows its true colors. Much is being said about Obama’s choice to abstain from voting on the UN Security council resolution, condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, and much will continue to be said, but judging by what I have seen so far I am neither impressed nor overly interested.
None of us can really be that surprised, right? This was an obvious move by President Obama, a suitable last hurrah if you will, from a man who from day one set out to set himself apart as the breaker of ties and holder of grudges. He was never a friend of Israel, and combined with his not-too-subtle need for pompous pageantry, this last kick in the gut toward Israel was a given, and boy did he give it with a bang.
All the emotional upheaval not withstanding, this means very little for the outgoing President, but to others, it means all the more. What Obama did by choosing not to veto this vote was to re-elect Netanyahu and throw support behind Donald Trump that he otherwise could have never expected to receive. Up until now, the liberal Jews have supported and defended Obama and his policies, but as he set out to humiliate Israel he also ended up shaming and humiliating a lot of Jewish democrats, thus losing his party a whole host of voters in order to settle a highly personal score. The liberal Jews stuck by him through foreign policy-blunders, anti-religious policies, and personal spats with the Israeli leadership. But his ego got the best of him one too many times and now minds are opening to Trump that otherwise would have stayed closed throughout this unexpected presidency. As for Netanyahu, he is much too smart to be outraged over what is expected wording from an obvious source in a document without teeth, and he knows that such obvious biased bullying will do nothing to lessen the strength of the Jewish state, but will only give him a more powerful mandate to act, and to lead.
And what about us, the Jewish people — what does this vote mean for us? Ben-Gurion once said that our future does not depend on what other nations say, but what Jews do, and what better time to be reminded of that than now, in this holiday season? They do not attack our state with their bills, proposals and outrageous resolutions. They attack our Jewishness, and it is with Jewishness we need to respond. Rather than focus outward, with our anger at the obvious, we should focus inward at the core of what they hate and the heart of what we could be.
I light my candles and say the blessing, I pray in the words of my forefathers and I keep the codes and laws given to us, through the original deed to our land. While they may choose to cry out for delegitimization, my very actions and choices award me legitimacy, and as they try to make me less of me I am more, I am louder and stronger than they ever expected.
This resolution was put forth to delegitimize the state of Israel, but chances are it will lead to the delegitimization of the UN. They overplayed their hand, and will ultimately end up losing, now the only question is what we as Jews choose to do, and what choices matter when it comes to our survival.
It’s not about Obama, or even Netanyahu or the President-elect; and this vote — while brazen and untrue — was neither more nor less important than any of the others before it. The more we shout and cry about resolution 2334, the more we give Obama exactly what he wants, making him feel like a trailblazer when he is little more than a petulant child, wanting to be the best at being the worst. It’s about us, and we should keep it about us, thereby honoring the message of the Maccabees and the struggle that brought us here, and kept us here, until this very day.
Obama has cemented his legacy, and now we can focus on our own. What do we choose to do today, what act of Jewish defiance will we partake in, to show the world what’s what? They can write words on papers while we settle our land, they can shake their fists in chambers while we say our ancient blessings. One of these things will stick, the other is soon out of office; one a paper dragon, the other a lion, which roars.
Happy Hanukkah.
Published in Foreign Policy
Great post, Annika. A very Happy Chanukah to you and your children, and may Trump undo Obama’s shameful legacy in the new year.
Possibly. On the other hand, Obama’s main political mentors were a Communist and a New Left domestic terrorist, and then a mix of Alinskyites and racialists. He has no particular roots in the Democrat Party nor, I think any loyalty to it. It may be an expendable instrumentality to him, just as the other domestic and foreign casualties of his policies are.
Obama may think think he has politicized the federal bureaucracy to such an extent that Trump will be unable to turn it to his purposes and has solidified his OFA power base so as to make him independent of any party.
This Rebel Pundit video is a case in point; severe language warning.
Takk sa väldig mycket för posten, kjäre Annika!
We will continue to pray for an support Israel here in Augsburg and one of those prayers is that the new administration in the States will undue the damage that the enemy of human liberty who has befouled 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with his noxious presence for the last eight years has done.
Shalu Shalom Yerushalayim, as always!
Another difference between leadership and patriotism as opposed to Obama’s complete loathing for America. He is far more concerned about what other nations say than what we do. Remember “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK…”?
Oh, I think we can be muuuuuch more generous and effective in such a choice. I don’t know under what specific auspices the UN is located in the US, but I can imagine a far more interesting scenario. By whatever appropriate jurisdictional action, Trump arranges for Obama to be appointed to lead the relocation of the United Nations to its more appropriate home – the same home as all of Obama’s other revered international institutions – Brussels! How could there be objection? All that global power in one lovely transnational location.
[DLTDHYITAOTWO!]
My sentiments exactly.
Much has been written about the damage Obama has done to the Democrats. I’m not so sure. He has succeeded in moving them to the left as he intended, and this may be the opening move in the fund raising for 2020 and 2024.
Consider the message:
A leftist in the White House may let antisemites attack Israel.
The Clinton Foundation is a new blueprint for fundraising which, I think, will not be lost on Obama. Just in case that doesn’t bring in quite enough, Obama’s online campaign fundraising accidentally took money from non-citizens.
George Soros is getting old. Obama may be the Left’s new kingmaker in the U.S.A.
I think it is of ultimate importance to get a many conservative objectives as possible done this session of Congress and elect as many Republicans as possible in 2018 in order to make it as difficult for Democrats to take any branch of government then or in 2020.