U.S. Again Betrays Promise of “Unbreakable” Support for Israel at the United Nations

Dear Friend of Israel, Friend of FLAME:

Israel last felt the sting of betrayal by its ally, the United States, five years ago in December 2016, when the Obama Administration allowed an anti-Israel United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution pass without a routine U.S. veto.

The 2016 resolution stated falsely that Israel’s expansion of settlements represents a “flagrant violation” of international law. It exhorted Israel immediately to cease all settlement activity in the “occupied Palestinian territory,” including East Jerusalem.

Now the Biden administration has heaped insult upon injury by actively supporting a new UNSC statement expressing members’ “deep concern and dismay” over Israel’s recent announcement to build more settlement homes in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” It also reaffirmed its “unwavering commitment” to a “two-State solution,” claiming that Israeli settlement activity endangers its viability.

While such UN resolutions are not legally binding, they are certainly intended to cast an aura of pariah status over the Jewish state. More importantly, these resolutions reflect a profound misreading of the desires of both Israeli and Palestinian publics. Thus, these mandates are also condescending to both parties—assuming the U.S. patriarch knows better than the Middle East children.

Indeed, despite the UNSC’s—and the United States’—attempt to dictate Israel’s and the Palestinians’ joint destiny, neither side supports a two-state solution. A 2022 poll shows that only 33% of Palestinians prefer two-states, and only 37% of Israeli Jews support the idea.

What’s more, both UN resolutions couch their condemnations and distress in terms most Israelis—from the left to the right—would find invalid at best and perverse at worst.

Few Israelis for example, consider the Jewish homelands of Judea and Samaria (aka, the West Bank) to be “Palestinian territory.” Such ownership, for many legal scholars, is not supported by international law, nor has Palestinian possession ever been adjudicated or supported by a treaty.

In fact, the very purpose of many failed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations over the last 55 years has been to determine borders of a future Palestinian entity. Israel, supported by the U.S., has made a handful of generous offers of land to the Palestinians, every one of which their leadership perfunctorily refused.

In other words, there’s zero evidence the Palestinians are interested in two states. They’ve never accepted Israel’s peace overtures, and no Palestinian leaders either say or do anything to promote peace with Israel under any terms. Rather, all evidence suggests the only terms acceptable to either Hamas or Palestinian Authority dictatorships . . . would be Israel’s utter destruction.

Therefore, we should forgive Israel for not greeting the UN’s pre-emptive declaration of “Palestinian territories” warmly. No surprise that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the UNSC action as “one-sided,” saying “The statement should never have been made, and the United States should never have joined it.”

While we’re at it, we should also remind the United Nations Security Council that Israel is not an occupying power, and that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria do not violate international law.

According to Law Professor Eugene Kontorovich at George Mason University, “Under international law, occupation takes place when a country takes over the sovereign territory of another country. But the West Bank was never part of Jordan, which seized it in 1949 and ethnically cleansed its entire Jewish population. Nor was it ever the site of an Arab Palestinian state.”

While the Geneva Convention prohibits forcible transfer of populations into a conquered land, this, too, applies only to sovereign territory.

Though Jordan’s occupation was viewed as illegal, Israel turned back Jordan’s attempted invasion in 1967 and evicted them. Israel and Jordan signed an unconditional peace treaty in 1994. By international law, Israel has superior claim to that territory over all others.

Finally, Israel has never forced Jews to settle in their ancient homeland—all immigration has been organized and motivated by those Jews independently. In short, for many reasons, the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply.

While Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State in the Trump Administration affirmed this reading of the law, the Biden Administration and its State Department choose to disregard it.

Indeed, just as Team Biden spent its first two years obsessively trying to make a nuclear deal with Iran’s ayatollahs—who did not want a deal—it is similarly fixated on preserving for the Palestinians the remote possibility of a two-state solution, whose leaders also do not want it.

The larger issue here for both the United States and Israel is the value of their relationship. Israel is arguably the single most consistent supporter of U.S. positions in global forums, and it is one of America’s militarily mightiest allies, protecting U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Deservedly, the U.S. and Israel cooperate on many diplomatic and military issues—and the U.S. remains Israel’s most steadfast financial supporter. But the current administration also consistently takes actions that undermine Israel’s interests.

Israel opposed both the failed Obama Iran Deal and Biden’s futile effort to resuscitate it. Israel also opposes forcing a two-state solution with Palestinians who violently demonstrate that they reject peace. Yet Team Biden has pushed forward aggressively on both fronts.

Emblematic of this focus on dead-end issues—at Israel’s expense—U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides confessed recently that he spends 60% of his efforts helping the Palestinians.

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel spends most of his time helping the Palestinians? These are the people killing Israelis daily and rewarding the terrorists with lifetime salaries, subsidized by American taxpayer dollars. These are the people whose schools teach children to hate Jews and become martyrs by murdering them. What is Mr. Nides helping the Palestinians do?

In fact, the Palestinians consistently refuse to cooperate with American diplomacy, whether it be President Obama’s efforts at peace negotiations or President Trump’s offer to them of $50 billion in aid. Palestinians cheer in the streets after their murder of Israeli and American citizens. Palestinian dictators are famously corrupt and deprive their citizens of even the most basic civil rights. Above all, they wage war instead of peace.

Please emphasize to friends, colleagues, family—and in letters to the editor—that U.S. financial and political support of the Palestinians’ war against Israel is shameful. Israel remains one of the world’s strongest democracies, and it operates scrupulously within the bounds of international law. It also is one of America’s truest friends. It deserves a full-time ambassador who loves Israel . . . and it deserves the United States’ wholehearted support in the UN.

I hope you’ll also take a minute, while you have this material front and center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME’s lively Facebook page and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME’s new hasbarah campaign—”Demand Justice for Jewish Students”—which exposes rising attacks on Jewish college students’ identity and how these acts of antisemitism can be defeated.

Best regards,

James Sinkinson, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

P.S.

You’ve surely seen headlines describing increasing attacks on Jewish students—in the classroom and in the public square—by radical anti-Zionist students, as well as faculty members. So far, university administrators have failed to prevent this kind of antisemitism on campus. At the heart of this discrimination, Israel’s enemies outrageously claim that Zionism is not part of being Jewish. No wonder more and more Jewish students are hiding their Jewish identities on campus. I think you’ll agree that we supporters of Israel need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Demand Justice for Jewish Students” tells how new law suits based on Title VI anti-discrimination laws are putting pressure on college administrators to protect Jewish students from such attacks. I hope you’ll review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME intends to publish in the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Post, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, Vice President Harris and President Biden. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. As of today, more than 15,000 Israel supporters receive the FLAME Hotline at no charge every week. If you’re not yet a subscriber, won’t you join us in receiving these timely updates, so you can more effectively tell the truth about Israel? Just go to free subscription.