As the fallout continues from the UN Security Council resolution against Israel which passed last Friday, Israel Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer has promised to reveal “evidence” that President Barack Obama was behind the vote itself. Dermer made the comments while appearing on CNN Monday.
The big question here which needs to be asked is “so what?” If President Obama did push through the vote, what difference does that make now? He has less than a month left in office, and he made it very clear to Binyamin Netanyahu in the days leading up to the vote that expanding settlements was not acceptable to him and that America would not block such a vote if Israel did not hault this. He is still the U.S. President after all and it is not like Obama violated the U.S. Constitution by ordering the abstention, nor did he break any promises not to do so.
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Israeli leaders like Binyamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners, however, made a political decision to push through more construction at a time when they could have just told people to wait a lousy month until Donald Trump takes office.
My interview today with @jaketapper on #TheLead. https://t.co/PeORER06yl
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) December 26, 2016
Israeli Ambassador Dermer appeared on CNN’s “New Day” program yesterday. He was there to discuss how Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had summoned the American ambassador to his country to criticize it for refusing to veto the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s settlements in the West Bank. The summoning of a foreign ambassador to meet with the host country’s leader is considered an act of serious rebuke in the world of diplomacy.
If you haven’t heard already, last Friday the UN Security Council voted to condemn Israel for building settlements on the other side of its pre-1967 borders, including Jerusalem. The UNSC resolution in effect declared all Jewish construction in the areas, including the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City and at the Western Wall itself, to be illegal. It passed 14-0 after the United States declined to use its veto power.
Since the vote, Israeli officials have engaged in personal attacks on President Barack Obama, accusing him of deliberately harming Israel in his last days in office.
The Israeli Ambassador declared his country’s intention to share with President Elect Donald Trump proof of what he described as collusion between the Obama Administration and the UN ahead of the controversial vote.
My interview on @MSNBC today.https://t.co/YNqnQtFMna
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) December 26, 2016
“I think it was a very sad day and really a shameful chapter, ” said Dermer about the passing of the resolution. “We have clear evidence of it [collusion between President Obama and the UN and] we will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels, and if they want to share it with the American people they are welcome to do it.”
“It’s an old story that the United Nations gangs up on Israel, ” Dermer added. “What is new is that the United States did not stand up and oppose that gang up. And what is outrageous is that the United States was actually behind that gang up.”
“We are deeply disappointed by this decision that was mad. Look, I listened and heard a lot of the talks over the last three days about what this Security Council resolution means. It’s very important to understand it, because people can get lost in all the details.”
Members of the Obama Administration have been denying the allegations made against the President over the UN Security Council resolution by Israel supporters.
America’s Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes stated after the vote passed, “With respect to this resolution, we did not draft this resolution; we did not introduce this resolution. The Egyptians, in partnership with the Palestinians, are the ones who began circulating an earlier draft of the resolution. The Egyptians are the ones who moved it forward yesterday. And we took the position that we did when it was put to a vote.”
Regardless of what one thinks about the resolution or of Barack Obama himself, Israeli officials are coming close to crossing a line in the accepted norms of international diplomacy. There was no need for Ambassador Dermer to make his nation’s contacts with the future Trump Administration public at this time. President Obama has only 24 days left in office.
