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By MORTON A. KLEIN <\/p>\n
Wikileaks recently exposed an email written by former White House official Stuart Eisenstadt that discussed the Obama administration\u2019s deteriorating relationship with Israel and warned that: \u201cThere is a distinct possibility that the Administration may seek a new UN Security Council Resolution embodying the two-state, with [pre-] 1967 lines and agreed land swaps, and some vague statements about Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is President Barack Obama intending to abandon the decades of bipartisan U.S. policy of vetoing anti-Israel U.N. Security Council resolutions? Specifically, is Obama preparing to permit the UN Security Council to pass a resolution supporting or recognizing a Palestinian Arab state, and declaring Jewish communities built within it to be illegal?<\/p>\n
The signs that this is indeed the case are numerous. President Obama is laying the groundwork to rationalize, and make palatable and understandable that he may take unprecedented unilateral actions against Israel. Consider:<\/p>\n
\u2022 On October 5, 2016, Obama\u2019s State Department \u201cstrongly condemned\u201d Israel for approving plans to build 98 apartment units within the existingJewish community of Shiloh in Samaria, for Jews who will be forcibly evicted from their homes in Amona. The existing Jewish community in Shilo which was established in 1979 and has 3,500 existing residents. The State Department falsely claimed that Israel was approving a \u201csignificant new West Bank Settlement,\u201d and that this undermined a two-state solution, and \u201ccalled into question Israel\u2019s commitment to achieving a negotiated peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 The State Department\u2019s October 5 condemnation also stated: \u201cwith regard to the UN Security Council and any action at the UN, our position hasn\u2019t changed. We\u2019re always concerned, frankly, about one-sided resolutions or other actions that could be taken within the UN, and we\u2019re always going to oppose those kinds of resolutions that we believe delegitimize \u2026 Israel and undermine its security. But we\u2019re going to carefully consider our future engagement, if and when we reach that point, and determine how to most effectively pursue and advance the objective that we all at least claim to share, which is that of achieving a negotiated two-state solution.\u201d [emphasis added].<\/p>\n
Despite being prefaced with a line about the U.S. position being unchanged, the State Department\u2019s \u201creconsideration\u201d statement, on top of the unusually harsh language of condemnation for a mere announcement of program of residential construction in an existing Jewish community, is more than a hint as to the course President Obama may take.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Shockingly, the same day, the Obama administration questioned whether Israel is a \u201cfriend.\u201d White House spokesman Josh Ernest reiterated the State Department\u2019s unfounded criticism of Israel, wrongly stating on October 5 that \u201cwe did receive public assurances from Israel that contradict this announcement, I guess when we\u2019re talking about how good friends treat one another, that\u2019s a source of serious concern as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 The media promptly provided further evidence of Obama\u2019s intentions to overturn longstanding U.S. policy. On the day of the administration\u2019s statements (October 5, 2016), the same \u201cecho chamber\u201d method that Obama aide Ben Rhodes boasted of using to promote the Iran deal \u2013 namely, using the media to promote the administration\u2019s agenda \u2013 was in full swing. A New York Times article that day quoted former Obama Administration peace negotiator, Martin Indyk, saying: \u201cAt a certain point \u2026 the Administration may well decide that there needs to be consequences for what it now sees as an effort to close off the two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 And on October 6, 2016, a New York Times editorial entitled \u201cAt the Boiling Point With Israel,\u201d parroted the State Department\u2019s false accusations against Israel, and called for Mr. Obama to \u201clead the Security Council to put its authority behind a resolution to support a two-state solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 During his September 30, 2016 speech eulogizing Shimon Peres, Obama falsely implied that Israel is \u201censlaving\u201d Palestinian Arabs. Obama quoted the leftwing Peres as saying, \u201cThe Jewish people weren\u2019t born to rule another people\u201d and \u201cwe are against slaves and masters.\u201d Obama also called Israeli\u2019s founding \u201cflawed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Later the same day, after the White House official transcript of Obama\u2019s eulogy listed \u201cJerusalem, Israel\u201d as the speech\u2019s and burial\u2019s location, the White House crossed out \u201cIsrael.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 On September 9, 2016, Obama\u2019s State Department wrongly criticized Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s valid and accurate explanation that the Palestinian Arab leadership\u2019s repeated demand for a state with \u201cno Jews\u201d constituted \u201cethnic cleansing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In sum, there are good reasons to believe that the ground is being prepared for a major change of US policy, and major U.S. betrayal of Israel at the UN, perhaps after the November elections.<\/p>\n
Obama\u2019s refusal to veto a potential UN Resolution unilaterally establishing or laying out borders or other parameters for a Palestinian Arab State would sabotage any chance of Israel\/Palestinian negotiations and peace. <\/p>\n
As President Lyndon Johnson wisely said: \u201cWe are not the ones to say where other nations should draw lines between them that will assure each the greatest security. . . [Lines] must be agreed to by the neighbors involved.\u201d <\/p>\n
The U.S. Congress can and should play a decisive role here: it can pass legislation mandating a cut-off of U.S. funding for the UN and\/or the Palestinian Authority if the Obama administration permits a Palestinian state resolution to pass in the Security Council. This could stop a devastating UN resolution, which will endanger the only tiny Jewish State in the world and its eight million inhabitants.<\/p>\n
Morton A. Klein is the President of the Zionist Organization of America.<\/em><\/p>\n