More cries of betrayal from the pampered nation. Benjamin Netanyahu says President Obama “initiated” the resolution against settlements at the United Nations, betraying his “explicit commitment” to Israel not to support such action. Education Minister Naftali Bennett says it was all planned in the Cairo speech 7 years ago. Israel’s situation is naked in the wake of the Security Council resolution to condemn the settlements.
‘We tried everything,’ White House aide Ben Rhodes says, in explaining Obama decision to allow UN Security Council resolution against settlements. He says Obama and John Kerry repeatedly warned Netanyahu about Israel’s “international isolation” but Netanyahu chose to ignore the warnings.
That an American abstention from the world’s top council was required to ensure the success of a resolution favoring Palestinian human rights tells us it is time to recognize the American-Palestinian conflict. Did you know there are more Americans in Palestine engaging in illegal activity than there are in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Obama’s endgame is the same when it comes to fossil fuels and Israel/Palestine: as part of his legacy project, he is signing decrees to protect the oceans from oil drilling and finally standing up to Israel’s aggressive and unchecked settlement expansion. Should we judge the last eight years by these eleventh-hour attempts, the looming inauguration would appear to be a radical break with a “progressive” agenda on environmental and diplomatic fronts. But the true break is between what has been going on throughout Obama’s consecutive terms and the very final stretch of his tenure in the White House.
The Justice Department should investigate civilian Donald Trump’s intervention in US foreign policy– calling Egypt to avert an anti-settlements resolution in the UN Security Council — as a violation of the Logan Act.
The New York Times commits journalistic malpractice, suggesting the US abstention at the UN was due to personal animosity between Obama and Netanyahu. Obama is dead serious about a two state solution, Netanyahu about holding on to power
Funerals in Ramallah on Thursday for a 16-year-old Palestinian killed by Israeli forces and on Friday for a 19-year-old drew thousands of Palestinians, while occupying Israeli forces detained a 7-year-old Palestinian boy in a demonstration in Kafr Qaddum during the weekly demonstration.
The United States abstained on a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements today, allowing it to pass, in a historic break from the passivity of the Obama administration on the question.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Lebanon has ended its contract with the world’s largest security company, G4S, following a boycott campaign by activists in the country and across the world over the company’s role in Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.
Israel is reported to be ready to expel an award-winning Australian journalist and writer, Antony Loewenstein, after he asked a too-probing question of an Israeli politician at a media event last week. It is unsurprising to learn that Israel has no serious regard for press freedom. But more depressing has been the lack of solidarity shown by journalistic colleagues, most especially the Guardian newspaper, for which he has regularly worked as a freelancer since 2013. Not only has the paper failed to offer him any support, but its management and staff reporters have hurried to distance themselves from him.