Obama's Lame-Duck Stunt on Israel

"Obama, ushered into office on the promise of a new kind of politics, is repeating the sins of the past by failing to recognize his time is over. His attempt to isolate Israel on his way out the door is the last wheeze of a feeble foreign policy...

Israel, like America and the rest of the world, is facing a threat from radical Islamists. To create a secure buffer zone between themselves and the people who want to kill them, Israel builds settlements in areas they confiscated following their victory against Arab aggressors in the 1967 Six Day War...

By refusing to cast a veto against the United Nations Security Council's 14-0 vote calling Israeli settlements 'a flagrant violation of international law,' Obama has not only abandoned longstanding tradition. He has also lost sight of the larger war in which the goal of destroying Israel is just a sub-conflict. Violent radical Islam has as its ultimate ambition the subjugation of the entire world.

Thinking of the Arab-Israeli conflict the way Obama does, as a regional rivalry, is badly outdated. Resolving it will not appease religious fundamentalists. Many parts of the Muslim world refuse to accept Israel's right to exist within any borders.

The same shortsightedness about the magnitude of the threat was on display when Obama said he trusted the mullahs in Iran to develop nuclear power responsibly and not use it to fulfill their vow to wipe Israel off the map. Few believed Osama bin Laden's threats against America, and then 9/11 happened.

The greatest outrage is that Obama threw Israel to the wolves at the UN, where pressure from Arab and other Muslim countries has disproportionate influence. After all, this is the same group that gave Yasser Arafat a standing ovation when he addressed the General Assembly wearing a holstered gun on his hip.

President-elect Trump has indicated he will be far more sympathetic to Israel. He seems to understand there is just one conflict in the world today and abandoning Israel is no way to treat a friend. But instead of cooperating with the incoming administration, Obama has decided to impose his bygone mindset.

Men and women are dying every day in the war with radical Islam. As President Obama counts down the days remaining in his term, the world would be better off if he would go sit quietly in the corner."