According to John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, President Obama’s intentions were far more devious than just betraying America’s closest ally in an act of utter cowardice.

By Chris Golden

When Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations abstained from a vote condemning Israel at the global body, it was the final perfidy of a president who has alienated and bullied the Jewish state for the entirety of his presidency.

Barack Obama’s Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power speaks to the UN Security Council after abstaining on an anti-Israel resolution, December 23, 2016 – UN video screenshot

According to John Bolton — former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush and under consideration for a position in the Trump administration — President Obama’s intentions were even more devious than just knifing Israel in the back.

In fact, Bolton says Obama’s act was nothing less than an attempt to thwart President-elect Trump’s pro-Israel agenda before he even takes office.

In a Friday appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Bolton said the abstention on the Israel resolution was perpetrated by the Obama administration in order to “box the incoming Trump administration in.”

“This was a stab in the back against the Israelis,” Bolton said. “It was entirely predictable. I would say this for people in the pro-Israel community in the United States who defended Obama’s Middle East policy over these last eight years: You should have seen this coming and this is what you get for supporting Barack Obama.”

Bolton said the president’s motives went far beyond the fact that Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won’t be exchanging Winter Solstice cards this year:

“I think this was an effort to box the in-coming Trump administration in, and it violates nearly 50 years of American bipartisan policy on the Middle East, going back to the iconic resolution 242 after the 1967 war,” Bolton said, referring to a United Nations resolution involving Israeli territory conquered after the Six-Day War.

The new resolution says Israel’s occupation of certain parts of its territory is “illegitimate,” according to Bolton.

“Therefore it has no land to give back in exchange for peace. Contrary to what the Obama administration has said, this puts a huge thumb on the scale against Israel.”

Speaking before The American Israel Public Affairs Committee while he was running for re-election in 2012, National Review points out, President Obama told the assembled crowd, “Is there any doubt that I have Israel’s back?”

Yes, there was certainly no doubt Obama had Israel’s back. The same way Marcus Junius Brutus had Julius Caesar’s back. The same way Fredo had Michael Corleone’s back.

The Obama administration’s betrayal at the United Nations — made all the more pusillanimous by the fact it was done after the election and right before Christmas, when the news cycle was dominated by Santa’s sleigh and not the parceling of Israeli territory over to the wolves of global antisemitism by a duplicitous president — oughtn’t be the afterthought he wants it to be, buried in the footnotes of his presidency’s history.

Instead, it should be his epitaph.

Eight years of broken promises. Eight years of division, mismanagement and feigned diplomatic powerlessness, all marketed under the catch-all banner of “hope and change.” And, as one of his final acts, he betrayed America’s closest ally in an act of utter cowardice.

“It was to be expected that Israel’s greatest ally would act in accordance with the values that we share and that they would have vetoed this disgraceful resolution,” said Israel’s Ambassador Danny Danon after the vote, according to Fox News. “I have no doubt that the new U.S. administration and the incoming U.N. Secretary General will usher in a new era in terms of the U.N.’s relationship with Israel.”

We know President-elect Donald Trump will try. What we don’t know is if it’s already too late.

View original WESTERN JOURNALISM publication at:
http://www.westernjournalism.com/thepoint/2016/12/26/john-bolton-united-nations/