Human rights expert warns: Biden may pass Trump-proof anti-Israel UN resolution like Obama

"Professor Anne Bayefsky, President of the Human Rights Voices human rights NGO, spoke to Arutz Sheva - Israel National News on Wednesday and warned of a potential move by the outgoing Biden Administration against Israel at the United Nations similar to the anti-Israel Security Council resolution the Obama Administration had passed in its final days in late 2016.

‘The Biden administration is now working fast and furiously to Trump-proof its disastrous Middle East foreign policy. Its partner of choice is the global epicenter of Israel-bashing and antisemitism, the United Nations,’ Prof. Bayefsky said.

‘The template for ignoring the will of the American electorate by enabling the United Nations to do the dirty work of a lame-duck President was written by President Obama. In late December 2016, he was photographed playing golf while his UN Ambassador Samantha Power surreptitiously finalized a Security Council resolution that upended decades of bipartisan support for a negotiated settlement of key issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict,’ she noted.

According to Prof. Bayefsky, ‘This time around, the production of a new resolution to do lasting damage to Israel and mount an end-run around the election of Donald Trump is peeking through. A version of a first draft was leaked to Al Jazeera and, in response to a press inquiry, the State Department announced: 'We will look at any resolution that comes up before the Security Council.'‘

Noting the Biden administration's actions at the Council since October 7th, she said, ‘The right answer in a democratic state would be to shut down these negotiations, period. But that’s not how the Biden presidency has rolled. Since the atrocities of October 7, 2023, the President has backed four Security Council resolutions all focusing primarily on aid to Palestinians. By the time June rolled around, resolution number four left the hostages to a vague staged release in marked contrast to the demand of 'an immediate, full, and complete ceasefire.'‘

‘Biden’s support for these resolutions – in the form of a refusal to exercise the American veto power – came despite what should have been morally reprehensible dealbreakers. Not a single resolution condemned Hamas, denounced October 7th as a terror attack and antisemitic, or even mentioned Israel’s UN Charter right of self-defense,’ she said.

Prof. Bayefsky addressed the ultimatum the US gave to Israel exactly a month ago to fulfill a set of conditions related to humanitarian aid in Gaza or risk the cut-off of American military aid. ‘Now an administration whose calamitous foreign policy decisions have left emaciated Americans (and Israelis) starving and dying in Gazan dungeons, wants to punish Israel for allegedly failing to provide enough food for Palestinians.’

While the deadline from the ultimatum passed yesterday, the US has not declared Israel to be in violation of the law that would trigger the cutoff of American military aid. Prof. Bayefsky explained that ‘The idea is to label Council Resolution Number Five an exercise in 'humanitarianism.' Humanitarian aid – for Palestinians, the only ones the UN counts as suffering. Aid that is hijacked to, feeds and empowers Palestinian terrorists.'

‘The resolution will also be billed as pro-peace. The goal is to insist right now on a permanent ceasefire. Everybody knows that today Hamas is not deterred or defeated, that the terrorist organization has never and will never obey a ceasefire, and that their Iranian sponsors are key and yet invisible to the UN’s scope. So a UN ceasefire demand has only one real target, namely, Israel,’ she said.

‘At the same time, Trump-proofing the fraudulent ceasefire ultimatum will need one more step: building into the resolution consequences for Israel’s predictable unwillingness to commit seppuku,’ she said.

She stated that ‘A Trump-proof resolution could take one of a number of forms. It could be adopted under the part of the UN Charter that makes Security Council resolutions binding ('Chapter VII'). That would be a first in Israeli history and be totally incompatible with a negotiated settlement and insistence that a 'State of Palestine' actually recognize and accept a Jewish state as per the Oslo Accords and American promises.’

She warned that it ‘could make claims about what counts as 'law.' That would trigger a global legal pogrom by the UN’s World Court and the International Criminal Court. A crescendo of legal fist-pumping intended to generate sanctions, boycotts and arms embargoes, while Israeli leaders and defense forces are defamed, hunted down, prosecuted and locked up. It would inevitably set up a dangerous conflict between the Trump administration and other states, deceitfully styled as a conflict between law-breakers and law-abiders.’

‘It could demand an unconditional or permanent ceasefire before the release of all hostages, before the end of Palestinian rocket fire, and before the termination of Hamas’s reign of terror. That would be pro-war, not pro-peace,’ she said.

Moreover, ‘It could set up a never-ending torrent of UN reports on Israel's 'compliance' with the resolution. Reports from the same Secretary-General, António Guterres, who said on October 9, 2023 that the butchery of Jewish babies, and the mass rape, torture, kidnap, and murder of more than a thousand Jews in a matter of hours, needed to be contextualized. He called it another data point in a 'vicious circle' of violence, that originated with Israel.’

‘A Trump-proof production line of Secretary-General reports ensures the UN will be constantly throwing gasoline on any American attempt to put out the fire. Because UN reports, meetings, and press conferences fan the flames of hate and antisemitism until they blow up in Israel, in Dutch streets, and on American college campuses,’ she said.

‘Any or all of the above will be Trump-proofed by the fact that once a Security Council resolution is adopted, the Russians and the Chinese would veto an attempt to revoke it,’ she warned.

Prof. Bayefsky stated that ‘Americans need to remind President Biden’s lame-duck administration – equally fast and furiously – that more than 150 million people of all political stripes didn’t come out to vote only to hand over control to the Russians, the Chinese and the United Nations.’"