The consequences of the obvious recent US betrayal of Israel at the UN will be huge. There will be significant, real world implications stemming directly from Barack Obama’s decision to abstain from UN Security Council resolution 2334, which subsequently allowed for Israel’s unanimous condemnation on Friday 23rd December, in the UN Security Council.
This betrayal will be felt deeply by Israel, despite the Obama Administrations spin that this was merely an act of “tough love,” toward its one time Middle East ally.
This wasn’t an act of “tough love” at all, it was an act of utter rebellion. It was an act of bitter hubris towards a hated enemy, and it was delivered by the Obama administration in the worst possible way, under the guise of “friendship” and with a smile. Never has betrayal looked so abhorrent or felt so obvious.
For Israel, left reeling in the wake of this anti-Semitic UN resolution, the impact will be felt at every level.
This resolution is not just meaningless diplomacy, it endangers the very existence of the State of Israel, and we will now see a real attempt to delegitimize Israel as a nation state.
This resolution has effectively made all Israeli settlements illegal and defacto handed them over to the Palestinians. It has divided the land, or at least in real terms, begun that process.
This resolution means that from this day forward any person or business involved in Jewish settlement enterprise or business, in for example the West Bank, could be sued in courts all over the world.
It means that the BDS movement, which despises Israel, have received a huge false legal justification for their anti-Semitic campaigns. They will now gain momentum in every EU and western country in the world. We will see widespread boycotts of Jewish settlement goods in Europe, the United States and across the world. It is merely a repackaged form of old school anti-Semitism.
Though attacking the Jewish settlement economy directly will not ruin Israel economically, as the Israeli economy is mostly reliant upon high tech goods not dependent upon settlements, this resolution will bring significant moral damage to Israel. This is because it assumes Israeli aggression where there is none, and gives the Palestinians moral superiority where they definitely have none.
It means that the EU will now likely make formal their currently informal policy of labeling all Israeli “settlement” goods, a practice that no doubt many other countries will now enact in the wake of this resolution.
This resolution means that Israeli politicians, Prime Ministers, IDF officers and soldiers, as well as normal Israeli citizens could actually be indicted by the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
Any Israeli officer or politician deciding to build on settlement land, or alternatively who destroys the homes of Palestinian terrorists after a Palestinian terror attack – a long standing current Israeli policy – may well now be pursued for war crimes.
How perversely ironic that just across the Israeli border, almost a stone’s throw away, over half a million people died in 2016 due to bloody civil war, and Weapons of Mass Destruction in the form of chemical weapons were definitely used there on a number of occasions, yet it is the Jews that are being pulled into the ICC, not the Syrians or the Russians. They are going to be prosecuted not for genocide, but for building new homes.
This resolution means that banks, businesses, retailers, factories and any other Jewish enterprise located in so-called “settlement” areas are now likely to be black listed. Other international businesses, banks, retailers and enterprises will no longer do business with them. These businesses will go to the wall.
This resolution will also create a mechanism to monitor and report back on Israel to the UNSC, on her perceived “transgressions” once every three months. This will mean Israel will be constantly critiqued to the most minute degree for every perceived wrong or injustice committed. They will be constantly hounded and harassed. Ultimately it could result in the imposition of international sanctions against Israel.
It is a huge step forward in the attempt to delegitimize Israel as a nation state.
This past week, though, John Kerry went even further and poured fresh fuel onto the fire. In a speech lasting almost an hour he exclusively berated Israel. It was really quite unprecedented in its tone and message. It was appalling.
Placing the full weight of blame for the failure of the peace process on Israel alone, Kerry completely overlooked the absolute intransigence of the Palestinian Authority, or their abject refusal to even so much as acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.
This speech was not just about baiting Israel, or apportioning blame to them, this speech was about laying the groundwork for something else entirely, something yet to come. Kerry, on behalf of the Obama Administration was making a case for future damaging moves they intend to make against Israel. They were justifying themselves beforehand.
The Obama Administration still, at this point, has a number of weeks left in office. It is clear that Obama, and the administration he leads, are intent upon leaving their mark on history and Israel will be their victim. To that end, on January 15, France are convening a summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The great fear is that this current United States administration will use the opportunity this summit affords to draw up a second UN resolution in which a Palestinian state will be arbitrarily declared.
The consequences of this betrayal will likely be the creation of a Palestinian state.
At the time of the end, the single, key sign indicating the beginning of the tribulation period will be that the man of lawlessness will “confirm a treaty with many for a period of seven” (Daniel 9:27).
He will not instigate the treaty himself, he will confirm one that already exists. It is becoming increasingly likely, in my mind at least, that this new potential resolution, which Obama possibly intends to pass before the end of his presidential term in January, may be that treaty “confirmed with many.”
The time in which we live today, is quite simply the most prophetically significant period of the last fifty years, and certainly of my lifetime. It is that important.
Keep looking up, because if a Palestinian state is declared in the coming month, and the land of Israel is divided, there will be one heck of a storm coming, direct from God,
“And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)