Trump might try reversing Obama-Biden ploy at United Nations

The failure of President Obama and Vice-President Biden to have America veto Security Council Resolution 2334 on 23 December 2016 has had disastrous consequences still being felt today.

President-elect Donald Trump will resume locking horns with the United Nations (UN) when he returns to the White House on 20 January 2025.

Trump’s UN Ambassador-elect – Elise Stefanik – will be following in the footsteps of Trump’s first-term UN Ambassador - Nikki Haley - who made the following statement on 18 December 2017 blasting President Obama and Vice-President Biden’s decision to abstain – rather than veto - Security Council Resolution 2334 on 23 December 2016 - as both were packing up to vacate the White House to make way for President-elect Trump on 20 January 2017:

“This week marks the one-year anniversary of the passage of Resolution 2334. On that day, in this Council, in December 2016, the United States elected to abstain, allowing the measure to pass. Now it’s one year and a new administration later. Given the chance to vote again on Resolution 2334, I can say with complete confidence that the United States would vote “no.” We would exercise our veto power. The reasons why are very relevant to the cause of peace in the Middle East.

On the surface, Resolution 2334 described Israeli settlements as impediments to peace. Reasonable people can disagree about that, and in fact, over the years the United States has expressed criticism of Israeli settlement policies many times.

But in truth, it was Resolution 2334 itself that was an impediment to peace. This Security Council put the negotiations between Israelis and the Palestinians further out of reach by injecting itself, yet again, in between the two parties to the conflict. By misplacing the blame for the failure of peace efforts squarely on the Israeli settlements, the resolution gave a pass to Palestinian leaders who for many years rejected one peace proposal after another. It also gave them encouragement to avoid negotiations in the future. It refused to acknowledge the legacy of failed negotiations unrelated to settlements. And the Council passed judgment on issues that must be decided in direct negotiations between the parties.

If the United Nations’ history in the peace efforts proves anything, it is that talking in New York cannot take the place of face-to-face negotiations between the regional parties. It only sets back the cause of peace, not advance it.

As if to make this very point, Resolution 2334 demanded a halt to all Israeli settlement activity in East Jerusalem – even in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. This is something that no responsible person or country would ever expect Israel would do. And in this way, Resolution 2334 did what President Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem as the capital of Israel did not do: It prejudged issues that should be left in final status negotiations.

Given the chance today, the United States would veto Resolution 2334 for another reason. It gave new life to an ugly creation of the Human Rights Council: the database of companies operating in Jewish communities. This is an effort to create a blacklist, plain and simple. It is yet another obstacle to a negotiated peace. It is a stain on America’s conscience that we gave the so-called BDS movement momentum by allowing the passage of Resolution 2334.”

Even worse:

• UN Secretary-General Guterres has been besmirching and denigrating Israel in the quarterly reports he is required to submit to the Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 2334 - fuelling the flames of Jew-hatred world-wide.

• The failed two-state solution in Resolution 2334 continues to be propagated to the exclusion of two alternative solutions: Trump’s 2020 Deal of the Century and the Saudi-based 2022 Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution.

The Obama-Biden ploy has had disastrous consequences.

Rescinding Resolution 2334 could well be on Trump’s agenda.

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Author’s note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively by the author — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka “Dry Bones”- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades