Since his election in 2008, President Obama has consistently pursued policies that have aided the state sponsors of radical Islamic terrorism around the world and have isolated the staunch U.S. ally and only democracy in the region, Israel. He has released hundreds of billions of dollars and given direct financial aid to the foremost state sponsor of radical Islamic terrorism in the world, Iran. He did so via a direct deal, without Senate approval, in derogation of the Treaty Clause, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. His deal with Iran has enabled that radical Islamic state to acquire nuclear weapons and through the release of over $100 billion has facilitated that nation’s quest to expand hegemony over the entire Middle East. He has toppled the brutal Libyan regime of Qaddafi only to usher in the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization. He failed to authorize use of military force to defend the American embassy compound in Benghazi from a radical Islamic terrorist attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
He failed to take any action sufficient to prevent Russia, Iran, and Assad’s Syria from obliterating all opposition to the brutal regime in power and failed to do anything to stem a refugee crisis that has carried in its ranks radical Islamists intent on mayhem throughout Europe. He supported the overthrow of Mubarak regime in Egypt, only to give rise to Muslim Brotherhood control of that country and disavowal of support for the United States. And now, in the crowning achievement of his movement to destabilize the Middle East and advance the interests of those dedicated to the destruction of the United States and Israel, he withdrew American objection to UN Resolution 2334 that defines Israeli occupied territories in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem as illegally held.
Through his actions, Obama has advanced the cause of international terrorism, diminished the power of America’s foremost ally in the Middle East, Israel, has precipitated war, and has laid the seeds for new armed conflict in the region. Most importantly, he has fostered instability while enormously contributing to the financing, arming, and deployment of radical Islamic terrorists around the world. He has placed the lives of Americans at home and abroad at risk.
Preceding the Six Day War in 1967, Israel found itself under siege as its Arab neighbors conspired to amass military forces on its Western borders, promising destruction of the Israeli state. In response, Israel drove the Arabs back and occupied territories that had been used as staging areas for the attack on the Jewish state. Those areas, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem have been occupied by Israel ever since. Historically, any movement to return those territories has been linked to an initial assurance of peace from the Palestinians and a recognition of the state of Israel. But, since 1967, radical Islamists in Palestine have engaged in a relentless campaign of terror against Israel and have consistently demanded elimination of Israel, refusing to embrace the “two state” solution that the United States has advocated. I thank my colleague attorney Eric Awerbuch for his contributions to this report.
Until the leaders of the Palestinian governments, Hamas (in control of the Gaza Strip) and Fatah (in control of the West Bank) repudiate terrorism and recognize Israel’s right to exist, any movement by Israel to return occupied territories to Palestinian control is simply a gratuitous concession that endangers Israeli security. It is that gratuitous concession that the Obama Administration endorsed when it abstained, rather than veto, UN Resolution 2334. UN Resolution 2334 expressly provides that “ . . . the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law. . .” The adoption of UN Resolution 2334 shifted the balance of power in the Middle East to the radical Islamic terrorists who seek Israel’s destruction. It gave legal credence to, and greatly emboldened, the anti-Israeli cause by laying a foundation in International law for the determination that the Israeli occupied lands are illegally held. In particular, it pulled the rug out from under Israel and all Christendom when it deemed East Jerusalem unlawfully held except by the Palestinians. It is in East Jerusalem that the most venerated and sacred holy places of Judaism and Christianity are found: the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Thus, Obama acted against Israel, but also against all of Christendom, when he allowed a ruling that the only lawful claim to the Holy Land of East Jerusalem lay with governing authorities that condemn Judaism and Christianity.
The Obama Administration could have demanded that East Jerusalem not be a part of the resolution, but they did not object to its inclusion, thus aligning the United States with what is a patently anti-semitic and anti-Christian stance, that the Holy Lands of East Jerusalem should be controlled by those who pledge death to Israel, death to the United States, and view any form of worship other than Islam condemnable and prosecutable under the Sharia law. In short, the Obama Administration embraced absolute intolerance for religions other than Islam in the most holy places of Jewish and Christian worship. That, unquestionably, is an act of racism and religious intolerance, because it endorses control by a theocratic dictatorship antithetical to Judaism and Christianity.
The Gaza Strip is controlled by Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. Un Resolution 2334 would, if effectuated, turn the Gaza Strip over to Hamas. Since 2007, Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades have rained down on Israel in excess of 3,000 rockets, have murdered Israeli defense force members and civilians, have murdered Americans in Israel, and have sponsored suicide bombings within Israel. Hamas daily condemns Israel, calling for its complete annihiliation, condemns Jews (welcoming the murder of Jewish civilians in speeches and song), condemns the United States (welcoming the murder of Americans), and rejects the two-state solution in favor of obliteration of Israel and expansion of the Palestinian state. Hamas pays for citizens to engage in acts of terror against Israelis and Americans. As an example of how casually and routinely Hamas leaders embrace genocide, in 2012, Ahmad Bahr, Deputy Speake of the Hamas Parliament, said in a prayer broadcast to the Palestinian people: “O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, destroy the Americans and their supporters. O Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one.” Those sentiments are commonly voiced by Hamas leaders and define a relentless enemy that resides within minutes of Israel’s heart of commerce and governance.
The West Bank is controlled by Fatah, which is likewise opposed to the existence of Israel and is against the two-state solution. There is, thus, no faction with governing control of Palestine that is not dedicated to the twin goals of destroying Israel and rejecting peace through a resolution that would allow the existence of two states, Israel and Palestine.
Obama’s endorsement of this anti-Semitic and anti-Christian UN resolution is also calculated to disable his successor’s ability to improve U.S. relations with Israel and combat terrorism. An affront to President-elect Trump and to Jews and Christians across the United States, the move to deem illegal even Israeli control of East Jerusalem, must now be undone but that process will require considerable effort by the Trump Administration.
Once in power, the Trump Administration must formally repudiate UN Resolution 2334, explaining that it is the official position of the United States government that the resolution does not affect any change in international law or American policy toward the state of Israel because essential preconditions to peace identified in all other international accords between Palestine and Israel have not been met, namely Palestine has not agreed to cease all acts of violence against Israel and Palestine has not admitted that Israel has a right to exist. Only when both of those concessions have been made and when the actions of Palestine match its promises to that effect will UN Resolution 2334 be capable of effectuation (and, even then, it would only invite a negotiated resolution between the two affected parties).
The Trump Administration should define UN Resolution 2334 as a dead letter and, to the extent resorted to by others to obtain control of lands occupied by Israel, will be opposed by Israel and the United States using all force necessary to protect Israeli occupants of the lands in question from any effort to expel them.
The Trump Administration should promptly cut off all American aid to Palestine, explaining that unless and until UN Resolution 2334 is revoked, Palestinians cease resort to acts of terrorism, and Palestinians accept Israel’s right to exist, the United States will not provide any financial help which, invariably, is either directly diverted or aids in the direct diversion of funds used to support acts of terror and solicitations of violence against the Jewish state and Americans.
The Trump Administration should promptly cut off funding for administration of the United Nations, explaining that unless and until UN Resolution 2334 is revoked, the United States will not finance UN administration.
Those measures may not cause UN members to revoke the resolution but will reduce the tendency of states to seek enforcement of it and will squarely align the United States with the position that Israel has a right to exist in peace and that the United States intends to act against any radical Islamic terrorist organization anywhere in the world, including against Hamas and its supporters.
© 2017 Jonathan W. Emord – All Rights Reserved
