6^th Candle Dear Family & Friends,

Tuesday night was bad enough – analyzing the vote in the UN for Resolution 2334 – almost worse that the Zionism is Racism UN resolution on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 10, 1975. I remember that date well personally because that UN infamy was my impetus to initiate M.E.I.R., Mid East Information Resource, a Jewish speakers’ bureau to fight Arab Propaganda. MEIR means enlightener, which was my logo with a flame over the “I”.

I didn’t know it then but, that was real ‘Hasbara’, now called Public Diplomacy. I also invented “Media Monitoring”, reading the news with a red pen & scissors to mark up news & commentary that needed attacking to correct. How can I brag that I invented “Media Monitoring”. Because Win Meiselman, creator & first Head of CAMERA, Committee for Accuracy in Mid East Reporting in America, came from Washington, DC to my house in Highland Park, Il, for a long weekend Seminar to learn from me about those subjects. Win did a great job for a very long time & now Andrea Levin is also fantastic. Now CAMERA covers the world media, often (very often) correcting Media Errors & deliberate lies.

As you see, I’m still doing it, bringing all of you, an encyclopedia of MidEast Info, 4 or 5 times a week with my usually 22 pages of the Gaza War Diary, stories & pictures, truth & commentary about the events of the days & nights that impact Israel for good or evil.

The difference now is, all those wonderful ‘Hasbara’/Public Diplomacy organizations that utilize the Net, the Ether, the Web & the You-Tubes, etc., often have a talented, vigorous staff assisting. I walk alone for now. I enjoy what I do, ‘fighting the slings & arrows of outrageous (or outraged) fortune, & so by taking up my cudgels to end them” – that is my ubiquitous ‘red pen’, computer to write & TV remote to tape the wholly vile, I am still fighting the fight. Now, we are many.

Social Media is being used to teach Muslims to hate & kill Jews. Those Terror Sites can be taken down by brilliant algorithms that analyze – before the sights & words & instructions hit the hostile sites – if the hosting administrators really wanted to stop the Terror Killing & Maiming.

The “Lawfare” Orgs use their Freedom of Speech to boycott, divest & sanction (BDS); to Break the Silence (smear our IDF with lies); Yesh Din & Peace Now who force Jews out of their homes with lies about so-called ‘illegal’ land which belongs to some anonymous Arabs who the King of Jordan may have granted a piece of Judea or Samaria to keep from the Jews.

Now comes Obama’s last ditch stand against Israel, to fail to give America’s unfailing veto of hostile Resolutions to protect her best ally & only Jewish & democratic country in the Middle East. I don’t even want (or need to) watch & hear Kerry defame Israel for over an hour.

So, have a great night, the sixth candle of Chanukah.

All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba x 2/Mom

1.Obama’s war against America By Caroline B Glick, JPost.com 12/27/16

2.Dangers of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 by Amb. Alan Baker

5.Amb. Ron Dermer: We’ll give Trump proof Obama drove UN vote

6.Conservative pundits slam Obama over anti-Israel Security Council vote

7. Donald: “Israel can’t be treated with disrespect. Be strong Israel, 1/20/17 comes fast!

8.Jerusalem okays 1 Jewish building, despite delaying vote on hundreds of homes

9.Trump slams Obama for his ‘disdain’ & ‘disrespect’ toward Israel

10.Joe Biden, VP, convinced Ukraine to vote for anti-Israel UN Resolution Friday

11.UN to fund blacklist of companies in ‘settlements’

12.YESHA Council Envoy: Kerry is a liar, he’s not saying the truth

13.City of David unveils latest archeological discovery to mark jubilee year

14.Obama’s Fitting Finish By Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal

1.Obama’s war against America By Caroline B Glick, JPost.com 12/27/16

Following outgoing US President Barack Obama’s assault on Israel at the UN Security Council last Friday, longtime UN observer Claudia Rossett wrote an important article at PJMedia where she recalled Kirkpatrick’s words.

In “How the PLO was legitimized,” published in Commentary, Kirkpatrick said that Yassir Arafat & the PLO worked “to come to power through international diplomacy – reinforced by murder.”

Kirkpatrick explained, “The long march through the UN has produced many benefits for the PLO. It has created a people where there was none; a claim where there was none. Now the PLO is seeking to create a state where there already is one. That will take more than resolutions and more than an ‘international peace conference.’ But having succeeded so well over the years in its campaign to delegitimize Israel, the PLO might yet also succeed in bringing the campaign to a triumphant conclusion, with consequences for the Jewish state that would be nothing short of catastrophic.”
As Rossett noted, in falsely arguing that Obama’s support for Friday’s UN Security Council Resolution 2334 is in line with Reagan’s policies, Obama’s UN ambassador Samantha Power deliberately distorted the historical record of US policy towards Israel and the PLO-led UN onslaught against the Jewish state.

In stark contrast to Power’s self-serving lie, neither Reagan nor George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush would have ever countenanced a resolution like 2334.

Obama’s predecessors’ opposition to the war against Israel at the UN was not merely an expression of their support for Israel. They acted also out of a fealty to US power, which is directly targeted by that war.

It is critical that we understand how this is the case, and why the implications of Resolution 2334 are disastrous to the US itself.

Resolution 2334 is being presented as an “anti-settlement” resolution. But it is not an anti-settlement resolution.

Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and neighborhoods in Jerusalem are being used – as they always have been used – as a means of delegitimizing the Jewish state as a whole, and legitimizing Palestinian terrorists and Islamic terrorists more generally. Resolution 2334 serves to criminalize Israel and its people and to undermine Israel’s right to exist, while embracing Palestinian terrorists and empowering them in their war to annihilate Israel.

America’s historic refusal to countenance such actions at the UN Security was never a purely altruistic position. It was also a stand for American power and the inherent justice of American superpower status and global leadership.

Throughout most of its history, the UN served as a proxy battlefield first of the Cold War & since the destruction of the Soviet Union, for the war against the US-led Free World.

Beginning in the early 1960s, the Soviets viewed the political war against Israel at the UN as a means to undermine the moral basis for the US-led West. If Israel, the only human rights defending state in the Middle East, and the US’s only stable ally in the region could be delegitimized, then the very coherence of the US-led Western claim to moral superiority against the totalitarian Soviet empire would be undone.

Hence, the first Soviet attempt at the UN to castigate Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement, as a form of racism was made in 1965, two years before Israel took control of Judea & Samaria & united Jerusalem in the Six Day War.

That attempt failed. But 9 years later the wording first raised in 1965 was adopted by the UN General Assembly which passed resolution 3379 slandering libeled Zionism as “a form of racism.”

With their automatic majority in the General Assembly & all other UN organs, the Soviets used the Palestinian war against Israel as a proxy for their war against America. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the Islamic bloc, backed by members of the former Soviet bloc, the non-aligned bloc & the Europeans continued their campaign. The only thing that kept them from winning was the US & its Security Council veto.

When Obama chose to lead the anti-Israel lynch mob at the Security Council last week, he did more than deliver the PLO terrorist organization its greatest victory to date against Israel. He delivered a strategic victory to the anti-American forces that seek to destroy the coherence of American superpower status. That is, he carried out a strategic strike on American power.

By leading the gang rape of Israel on Friday, Obama undermined the rationale for American power. Why should the US assert a sovereign right to stand against the radical forces that control the UN?

If US agrees that Israel is committing a crime by respecting the civil and human rights of its citizens to live in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, then how can America claim that it has the right to defend its own rights and interests, when those clash with the views of the vast majority of state members of the UN?

Following Obama’s assault on Israel Friday, Senators Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz called for the US to end its financial support for the UN at least until the Security Council abrogates Resolution 2334. They are correct.

But it isn’t anger at how Obama has and is expected to continue to use the Security Council to imperil Israel that should inform the incoming Trump administration’s actions. Rather a determination to maintain US power and secure its national security requires that the UN be permanently defunded and defanged.

For eight years, through his embrace and empowerment of US enemies, betrayal and weakening of US allies, emaciation of the US armed forces and repeated apologies for America’s past assertions of global leadership Obama has waged a determined war against US superpower status. The last vestige of the strategic and moral rationale for US power was the protection America afforded Israel at the Security Council.

Now with that gone, it has become a strategic imperative for the US to render the UN irrelevant. This can only be undertaken by permanently defunding this corrupt institution and using the US’s Security Council veto to end the UN’s role as the arbiter of international peace and security, by among other things, ending the deployment of UN forces to battle zones.

Only by stripping the UN of its financial wherewithal to assault US allies and American interests and by denying it the institutional and operational capacity to serve as an arbiter of disputes morally and legally superior to the US can America protect its sovereignty and advance its interests.

Only by denying those associated with the UN the prestige that confers to an institution legitimized by democrat and autocrat alike can the incoming Trump administration rebuild America’s reputation and power.

It is not surprising that Obama is carrying out the final act of his presidency at the UN. Obama has made no attempt to hide his desire to eliminate America’s independence of action. By elevating the post of UN ambassador to a cabinet level position at the outset of his presidency, Obama signaled his conviction that this corrupt institution is the equal of the US government.

This early signal was transformed into an open policy when Obama used the Security Council as a means to bypass the US Senate in implementing his nuclear deal with Iran.

Now, by ignoring the near consensus position of both parties that the US should block anti-Israel resolutions from being adopted at the Security Council and plotting further action against Israel at the Security Council in his final weeks in office, Obama has made clear his position and his aim.

Obama is not leading the war against Israel at the Security Council simply to advance the PLO’s war for the annihilation of Israel. He is acting in this manner to undermine the legitimacy of American power.

Obama’s strategic campaign against his country can only be defeated by a counter campaign by his successor.

Luckily, by eschewing multilateral entanglements in favor of bilateral partnerships during his presidential campaign, President-elect Donald Trump has demonstrated that he understands the threat and will adopt the only possible means of countering it. To reassert and rebuild the rationale for American power, the Trump administration must permanently defund the UN & reject its legitimacy as an institution of global governance.

The 2.Dangers of UN Security Council Resolution 2334 by Amb. Alan Baker

The December 23, 2016, resolution adopted by the UN Security Council regarding Israel’s settlement policy has been received with mixed and even extreme reactions. [Click to read the text of UN Security Council Resolution 2334]

The Palestinian leadership, having initiated the resolution, is celebrating its adoption as an affirmation by the international community, including the United States, of its claims against Israel.

Israel sees this resolution as a major impediment to continued peace negotiations in light of the fact that it by-passes the negotiation process in an attempt to prejudge central issues that are on the negotiating table. As such, it seriously prejudices any possible return to the negotiating process.

Israel considers that the resolution provides political incentives to those in the international community hostile to Israel. It advances boycotts and sanctions and could even be used to support possible litigation against Israeli leaders.

Summary of Implications

Following is a brief summary of the legal and quasi-legal implications of the resolution:

1. The resolution (as all previous resolutions regarding Israel) was adopted under the sixth chapter of the UN Charter (Pacific Settlement of Disputes) &, as such, is not mandatory. It contains a series of political determinations & recommendations to the international community. The resolution does not make law &, as such, determinations as to the lack of legal validity of Israel’s settlements are no more than declaratory.

2. Much of the terminology repeats UN terminology & language used in previous Security Council & General Assembly resolutions (“inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by force,” “Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 including East Jerusalem,” “secure and recognized borders,” “violation (serious or flagrant) under international law,” the references to the lack of legal validity of settlements & their being an “obstacle” or “major obstacle” to achieving a two-state solution).

3. References in the tenth pre-ambular paragraph to the fact that “the status quo is not sustainable” & “entrenching a one-state reality” are new & would appear to be inspired by, or even direct quotes from statements by President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry & Vice President Biden.

4. Similarly, expressions not previously included in major Security Council resolutions regarding the peace process, such as “two-state solution based on the 1967 lines” (operative paragraph seven), as well as the references in the ninth paragraph to the “Arab Peace Initiative” & the “principle of land for peace” as additional bases for peace, clearly are intended to instill concepts that have never been agreed-upon elements in the negotiating process.

5. The call upon states in the fifth operative paragraph to distinguish between dealings between Israel-proper & the territories will also be used by BDS activists & states to buttress their boycott campaigns.

6. The reference in the third operative paragraph to the “4 June 1967 lines” as a basis for negotiations would appear to be a new element, echoing statements by Obama & Kerry, & running counter to the 1967 Security Council resolution 242, which is the basis for all of the Arab-Israeli peace process, which calls for negotiation of “secure & recognized boundaries.” The Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords make no specific reference to the 1967 lines. As such this reference would appear to be an attempt to prejudge or unduly influence the negotiating issue of borders.

7. Despite the declaratory and recommendatory determinations in the resolution attempting to prejudge the status of the territories, east Jerusalem, borders & settlements, the resolution nevertheless would appear to contradict itself in that it goes on to reaffirm the call for negotiations on “all final status issues” (operative paragraph eight) & for “a comprehensive, just & lasting peace.”

Analysis

1. While the resolution does not replace Security Council Resolution 242, which is the accepted & agreed basis for the Israel-Arab peace process, it nevertheless contains elements that attempt to modify Resolution 242 & to sway the negotiating process in a particular direction.

2. The resolution cannot, in & of itself, serve as grounds for legal proceedings in the International Criminal Court (ICC) or other international tribunals. But clearly, it will be used by the Palestinian leadership as a political tool to buttress existing complaints. This despite the fact that the issues of Palestinian status vis-à-vis the ICC & the court’s jurisdiction regarding the territories have yet to be reviewed juridically. The fact that the ICC Prosecutor has recognized the accession of “the State of Palestine” to the ICC Statute & has accepted their complaints are political decisions.

3. The United States, through its decision not to veto the resolution, enabled acceptance of a Security Council resolution referring to “occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem.” This indicates U.S. acceptance of the fact that the territories & east Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians. This despite the claim that the United States has consistently agreed with Israel that there has never been any legal determination, agreement, treaty, or other binding source determining that.

4. This represents a serious & even irresponsible departure from U.S. policy which has consistently advocated negotiated settlement of the issues of permanent status, Jerusalem & borders.

5. This position taken by the U.S. (as well as the other members of the Security Council) also undermines basic obligation of the Oslo Accords, signed by the PLO & witnessed by the U.S. (as well as the EU, Russia, Egypt & others), that the permanent status of the territories, the issues of Jerusalem & borders are to be negotiated.

6. While the U.S. & Israel have entertained basic disagreements on settlement policy, the U.S. has consistently rejected, as a matter of policy, any attempt by the international community to prejudge this or the other permanent status negotiating issues.

7. The outrage voiced by Israel with both the resolution itself & the Obama administration’s enabling it to pass stems from five basic components:

§ The text of the resolution, which is unprecedented in the extent of the condemnatory language used.

§ Israel’s frustration at the irresponsible behavior by the Obama administration.

§ The evident irreversibility of the resolution & the potential for future damage.

§ The imbalance between accusations of Israeli violations of the Oslo Accords & the Palestinians’ blatant violations of international law in their incitement & payment to terrorists.

§ The issue of settlements is not the core of the conflict. It remains the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize the Jewish State & its right to any part of the land west of the Jordan River.

Amb. Alan Baker is Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center & the head of the Global Law Forum. He participated in the negotiation & drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, as well as agreements & peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan & Lebanon. He served as legal adviser & deputy director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs & as Israel’s ambassador to Canada.

View all posts by Amb. Alan Baker

3.Kerry – The Big Lie by Eli E. Hertz December 28, 2016

True peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs cannot be based on a lie. Putting Israel and its Arab neighbors on the same footing totally ignores the asymmetry of the history of the conflict and something as fundamental as cause and effect. The truth is that one side – the Arab side – has been the aggressor time-after-time. The Arabs have been the initiators of more than five major wars, political and economic boycotts and unbridled incitement. The Palestinian Arabs have launched wave-after-wave of terrorism against Israelis and other Jews and made hate the fuel that directs and runs their society.

All this began before there was a State of Israel, before there was an ‘occupation’ and it continues unabated to this very day.

Arabs have instigated war and terror attacks against the State of Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973, and by various acts of belligerency throughout this period.

They have flouted their basic obligations as part of a free and democratic society to refrain from threat or use of force against Israel’s territorial integrity and political independence.

These acts are in flagrant violation inter alia [among other things] of the United Nations Charter.

4.PM: Kerry’s speech biased like the UN

PM, other ministers, blast John Kerry’s speech for ‘obsessive’ focus on ‘settlements’ & bias against Israel Arutz Sheva Staff, 28/12/16 20:38

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu criticized Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on the peace process scathingly Wednesday, calling the speech “skewed” & “obsessive.”

“Like the Security Council resolution that Secretary Kerry advanced in the UN, his speech tonight was skewed against Israel,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.

“For over an hour, Kerry obsessively dealt with settlements & barely touched upon the root of the conflict — Palestinian opposition to a Jewish state in any boundaries.” the statement continued.

Other government ministers also criticized Kerry’s speech. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin stated the speech included “a lot of words and very little understanding of reality.”

“Kerry is trying to force on us, in his last days on the job, a worldview that is a prize for Palestinian terror & that completely ignores our rights to the country,” Levin said, adding “A true friend of Israel should have shown support for the elected government & not tried to force on the Jewish people resolutions through the supporters of Iran at the UN.”

Education Minister Naftali Bennett said: “Kerry quoted me three times anonymously in his speech in order to demonstrate that we oppose a Palestinian state.”

“So let me state it explicitly:” Bennett said.

“Yes. If it depends on me, we will not establish another terror state in the heart of our country. The citizens of Israel have paid with thousands of victims, tens of thousands of rockets and innumerable condemnations for the utopian idea of a Palestinian state. It’s time for a new policy and we will lead the way.” Bennett concluded.

MK Moti Yogev said: “The speech and the frustration of Secretary of State John Kerry [for the sake of creating] a Palestinian terrorist state in the land of Israel, didn’t surprise anyone.”

Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog praised Kerry’s speech, however. “John Kerry has always been a great friend of Israel and will always be. His speech expresses true concerns about Israel’s well-being & future.” he tweeted. Related Stories

UN ambassador Danon: Kerry’s speech ‘a distortion of reality’

Herzog: Kerry a ‘true friend’ of Israel

Bennett tells Kerry: We will not establish another terror state

Watch: Secretary Kerry says ‘settlements’ preventing peace

Jerusalem Planning Committee approves City of David building

Jerusalem Building Committee delays approval of new units

YESHA Council Envoy: Kerry is a liar, he’s not saying the truth

Egyptian report: US led the charge to pass the UN resolution

Maryland Rep: ‘Kerry and Obama wanted to disadvantage Israel’

PM: Kerry’s speech biased like the UN

5.Amb. Ron Dermer: We’ll give Trump proof Obama drove UN vote …Dermer calls White House aide Rhodes a ‘master of fiction’; PM defends strident campaign, says he ‘will not turn the other cheek’ BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF 12/26/16

Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer speaks to media at Trump Tower, Thur. 11/17/16, in NY. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) “It’s an old story that the United Nations gangs up against Israel. What is new is that the United States did not stand up & oppose that gang-up. What is outrageous is that the U.S. was actually behind that gang-up,” Dermer said. Confirming claims made by PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman a day earlier, Dermer said Israel has proof the White House drove the resolution & will “present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels.”

In this photo provided by the United Nations, members of the United Nations Security council vote at the United Nations headquarters on 12/23/16, in favor of condemning Israel for its practice of establishing settlements in the West Bank & east Jerusalem. In a striking rupture with past practice, the US allowed the vote, not exercising its veto. (Manuel Elias/The United Nations via AP)

“If they want to share it with the American people, they are welcome to do it,” he said, sidestepping a question on why Israel would not release the information itself.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Netanyahu’s spokesman David Keyes said Arab sources, among others, had informed Jerusalem of President Barack Obama’s alleged involvement in advancing the resolution.

“We have ironclad information, frankly, that the Obama administration really helped push this resolution & helped craft it, from sources internationally & sources in the Arab world,” Keyes told the US media outlet.

The White House has adamantly denied “cooking up” the resolution, rejecting accusations by Netanyahu to that effect.

“We did not draft this resolution; we did not introduce this resolution. We made this decision when it came up for a vote,” Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said on Friday. But because of its opposition to settlement activity and concern for what it could mean for the region, the US “could not in good conscience veto,” he added.

White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes (Photo credit: screenshot/CNN)

Dermer, in a subsequent interview with MSNBC Monday, called Rhodes a “master of fiction” — a harsh barb that seemed to evoke Rhodes’ past literary aspirations.

Netanyahu held a 40-minute meeting with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro on Sunday evening, having summoned the envoy to explain why the US abstained in the vote on Resolution 2334. He had earlier summoned the envoys of the 12 nations with representatives in Israel that voted for the resolution for a dressing-down at the Foreign Ministry.

Netanyahu on Monday defended the rebukes and the punitive measures he has taken against countries who proposed the resolution, saying that “Israel is a country with national pride and we will not turn the other cheek.

“There is continued importance for this sort of response, even if there are more attempts to damage us in the coming month,” he said, in the remaining 3 ½ weeks of Obama’s term.

Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on December 25, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

But Netanyahu is now actively reaching out to the incoming Trump administration, which takes office on January 20, and to friends in Congress, in the hope of “deterring” what he sees as further potential Obama administration-led diplomatic action against Israel, a report by Channel 2 said Sunday. His aim is reportedly for the Trump team to make plain that his administration will “economically hurt” those countries that voted against Israel in the UN & that do so in the future.

Netanyahu’s fear is that Secretary of State John Kerry will set out principles or parameters for a Palestinian state in a speech that he has said he will deliver in the next few days on his Middle East vision. The prime minister fears that, in its final days, the Obama administration will seek to have a resolution enshrining those parameters adopted by the UN Security Council, the report said.

Conservative commentators in the U.S. have lashed out against President Barack Obama over his decision not to veto U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemns Israeli settlement activity.

Senior Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer told Fox News on Monday that the administration’s claim that the White House played no active role in passing the resolution was false.

“The claim that the resolution just showed up and they decided to abstain is ridiculous. This was a U.S. operation all the way,” he said.

“This is very serious damage that cannot be undone, because you can’t change a Security Council resolution without the acquiescence of the Russians & the Chinese & you’re not going to get it.

“It’s as if the U.N. passed a resolution declaring Mecca & Medina to be sovereign Jewish or Christian territory. It’s absurd. It’s an insult to the intelligence of the world & is supremely damaging to the Israeli claim to its own holy places.”

Wall Street Journal Deputy Editor and senior foreign affairs columnist Bret Stephen called the U.N. vote “Obama’s fitting finish.”

“Barack Obama’s decision to abstain from, and therefore allow, last week’s vote to censure Israel at the U.N. Security Council is a fitting capstone for what’s left of his foreign policy,” Stephens wrote in a column published Monday.

“Strategic half-measures, underhanded tactics and moralizing gestures have been the president’s style from the beginning. Israelis aren’t the only people to feel betrayed by the results.”

According to Stephens, the U.N. vote was “a spectacle of the U.S. government hiding behind the skirts of the foreign minister of New Zealand — along with eminent co-sponsors Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal — in order to embarrass and endanger a democratic ally in a forum where that ally is already isolated and bullied. In the catalogue of low points in American diplomacy, this one ranks high.”

Former U.S. Amb. to the U.N. John Bolton also lashed out against the administration in the same paper, calling the decision “Obama’s parting betrayal of Israel.”

“On the eve of Hanukkah and Christmas, Barack Obama stabbed Israel in the front,” Bolton wrote. “The departing president refused to veto United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 — a measure ostensibly about Israeli settlement policy, but clearly intended to tip the peace process toward the Palestinians. Its adoption wasn’t pretty. But, sadly, it was predictable.

“Mr. Obama’s refusal to use Washington’s veto was more than a graceless parting gesture. Its consequences pose major challenges for American interests.”

7.Trump sends a message to Israel: Donald Trump tweets that “Israel cannot be treated with such disdain and disrespect. Stay strong Israel, Jan. 20th is fast approaching!” Arutz Sheva Staff, 28/12/16 16:32 Donald Trump shares a laugh on the campaign trail-Reuters

President-elect Donald Trump urged Israel to “stay strong” until he takes office, saying that it cannot be “treated with disdain.” “’We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain & disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but not anymore. The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal & now this (the U.N., ed.)! Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!” Trump tweeted.

Netanyahu is hoping for better relations with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office Jan. 20. Trump has pledged to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem & his choice of ambassador to Israel, attorney David Friedman, is a strong supporter of the Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria. On Tuesday, Trump appointed Thomas Bossert, a campaign adviser on Israeli issues, to be his assistant for homeland security and counter terrorism.

Secretary of State John Kerry intends to offer a “comprehensive vision” for how Middle East peace can be achieved at the coming French Conference on Peace, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked a discussion of new construction in Jerusalem in an effort to reduce tensions with Washington.

8.Jerusalem okays 1 Jewish building, despite delaying vote on hundreds of homes

iSRAEL NEWS By Daniel K. Eisenbud 12/28/2016 10:36

7 questions about the UN resolution on Israeli settlements

Erdan calls John Kerry’s upcoming Middle East peace speech ‘pathetic’

Decision to avoid straining relations further with the Obama administration.

(Israel pulls back from approving new East Jerusalem homes ahead of Kerry speech)

Amid heightened tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over the US’s abstention in last week’s UN Security Council resolution, the Jerusalem Municipality on Wednesday delayed approving hundreds of Jewish residential units beyond the 1949 Armistice Line, with one exception.
Moments before US Secretary of State John Kerry’s scheduled speech about the Middle East, Jerusalem’s Local Committee for Building and Construction agreed to approve a four-story residential structure for Jewish families in east Jerusalem’s contested Shiloah/Silwan neighborhood.

The vote was purportedly announced after the committee declined to approve the construction of 618 homes in Ramat Shlomo, Ramot & Pisgat Ze’ev, allegedly at the behest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to deescalate ongoing strains with the outgoing Obama Administration.
However, the Prime Minister’s Office had no comment on reports that Netanyahu intervened to have the plans removed from the agenda before Kerry’s speech.
Still, Netanyahu has told his cabinet minister that in the days remaining until US President Barack Obama leaves office, they should not do anything to give the Obama administration an excuse to push forward additional diplomatic steps against Israel.
The municipality’s District Zoning Committee also postponed discussions to approve 5,600 more residential units in Gilo, Ramot & Givat Hamatos.
The left-wing NGO Ir Amim, which opposes Israeli construction in territory where Palestinians seek to establish a state, said the approved residential structure would be erected on a vacant lot in the Palestinian neighborhood, where Jews have been expanding an enclave.
“Today, while attention has been focused on the removal of … building permits … the committee proceeded to approve a controversial project in one of the most flammable neighborhoods in east Jerusalem,” Ir Amim said in a statement shortly before Kerry’s speech.
Peace Now spokesperson Anat Ben-Nun said on Wednesday “approval of a Jewish settlement in the heart of Silwan is meant to prevent the possibility for two capitals in Jerusalem.”
“By trying to avenge the UN Security Council’s resolution, Netanyahu is siding with the most extreme of settlers, harming the two-state solution & risking the future of Israel as Jewish & democratic,” Ben-Nun added.
In a Tuesday statement, the municipality contended that the resolution had no bearing on the city’s master plan for Jewish or Arab construction.
“The Jerusalem Municipality has not changed its stance that building in Jerusalem is necessary for the development of the city & will continue to develop the capital according to zoning & building codes without prejudice, for the benefit of all residents,” the statement said.
“Committee decisions will be published once finalized.” Still, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has repeatedly stated that he would never cease construction in the capital, despite ongoing international pressure.
“The Local Committee for Building & Construction has no line,” he said during an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post last month “Everything that comes to the Local Committee, we approve. On the District Committee, which is national, sometimes there are [barriers] for projects that are awaiting approval.”
Moreover, deeming the UN resolution further fundamentally biased against Israel, Barkat issued a blistering statement after the council demanded immediate cessation of all construction in “occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem.”
“The UN has proven time and time again – through last month’s UNESCO resolution & this most recent Security Council vote, – that it is biased against the Jewish state,” Barkat said, referring to the resolution denying Judaism’s link to the Temple Mount, its holiest site.
Barkat also took the outgoing Obama Administration to task for abstaining in the otherwise unanimous vote for “strengthening voices that delegitimize the Jewish connection to this land & the eternal, indivisible capital of the Jewish people: Jerusalem.”
“The US decision to abstain from the UN Security Council vote has exposed the consistently failing strategy of the Obama Administration of harming its ally Israel, by strengthening its enemies,” Barkat continued.
Herb Keinon and Reuters contributed to this report.

ISRAEL NEWS By Daniel J. Roth 12/28/2016 16:53

9.Trump slams Obama for his ‘disdain’ & ‘disrespect’ toward Israel

Kerry to make Middle East peace speech on Wednesday

The United States last week abstained from wielding its veto power at the UNSC, allowing an anti-settlement resolution to pass.

Donald Trump, President-Elect/Barack Hussein Obama-Pres.Out

VP Joe Biden hugging King of Jordan Abdullah II. US VP Joe Biden Dec 27, 2016

10.Joe Biden, VP, reportedly convinced Ukraine to vote for the anti-Israel UN Resolution Friday last

US Vice-President Joe Biden personally interfered in order to persuade Ukraine to vote for the anti-Israel resolution passed Friday at the UN Security Council, reports indicate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a visit to Jerusalem by Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, scheduled for this week, after his country, a supposed ally, voted in favor of a UN Security Council resolution that delegitimizes Jewish communities in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. The passing of the resolution, Israel maintains, weakens the Jewish state, strengthens terrorists and destroys any chances for a resumption of peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.

Ynet reported on Monday that according to Israeli officials, “Groysman, a Jew who is thought of as one of Israel’s main supporters, wanted that his country not be involved in the consultations held on the resolution. However, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko decided to vote in favor of its passage following a telephone conversation with US VP Joe Biden.”

Also on Monday, Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin told Jerusalem Post that Biden intervened ahead of Friday’s vote at the UN, persuading Ukraine to support it.

“Elkin said openly that Biden spoke to the Ukrainians, and that they would have abstained had he not intervened,” the Post reported. “A source said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s office confirmed that Biden called, but would not confirm nor deny that the conversation had to do with Israel.”

Biden’s office vehemently denies the accusation, saying the call focused on issues specific to the Ukraine and had nothing to do with the UN resolution.

Revoking the invitation to Groysman was only one in a series of retaliatory measures taken by the Netanyahu government in response to the UN vote, conveying that Jerusalem does not take these diplomatic attacks lightly, particularly when supported by countries that are recognized as friends, including Ukraine.

At the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Netanyahu criticized the Obama Administration for assuming a major role in the passing of the resolution. “From the information that we have no doubt the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording & demanded that it be passed,” he stated. By: United with Israel Staff

11.UN to fund blacklist of companies in ‘settlements’

UN General Assembly votes to approve funding for blacklist of companies doing business in ‘settlements.’ By Gary Willig, 28/12/16 19:56

UN General Assembly – Reuters

The UN General Assembly approved the funding of $138,700 towards the creation of a database of companies which do business in Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria & eastern Jerusalem.

The sum was approved on the same day that the Security Council approved the resolution, not vetoed by the Obama government, condemning all Jewish presence over the 1949 armistice lines, the Human Right Voices NGO reported.

The database would serve as a blacklist to help BDS organizations seeking to foster boycotts of the State of Israel.

The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved the creation of the database in March, but lacked the authority to fund the action. The General Assembly decision grants the project the necessary funding.

The US criticized the decision of the HRC in March. State Department spokesman John Kirby called the move “far outside” the authority of the HRC.

The funding for the database was part of the 2016-2017 General Assembly budget which was approved last Friday. Israel introduced an amendment to remove the clause funding the database from the budget, but the amendment was rejected by a vote of 151 countries compared to only 6 in favor.

While the US was one of the countries which voted with Israel to remove the clause from the budget, it still voted for the budget as a whole & that included the funding of the database.

Israel announced that it would “disassociate” itself from the General Assembly’s subsequent approval of the UN budget as a whole in response to the approval of the funding for the database.

According to the UN, the $138,700 will be used “to pay for one staff member to create the database over a period of 8 months and present a report” to the Human Rights Council in March 2017.”

12.YESHA Council Envoy: Kerry is a liar, he’s not saying the truth

Efrat mayor says Kerry is looking to make headlines, needs to stop fantasizing about Israel’s nightmares. By Eliran Aharon, 28/12/16 10:29

Prior to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech, which is expected to be one attacking Israel, YESHA Council Chief Foreign Envoy & Efrat Mayor Oded Revivi said Kerry was not a person who could be relied upon.

“When I met with Kerry a few weeks ago, I understood that we’re talking about a person who is disconnected from reality & looking to make headlines. He’s a person who takes sides in an argument & confuses facts with wishes. During his years in office, Kerry has seen over & over again Israel’s willingness to compromise, as well as the Palestinian Authority’s stubbornness & insistence on ignoring golden opportunities for lasting peace.”

Revivi also said Kerry “has to stop dreaming & fantasizing about what Israel considers to be a nightmare. He also needs to connect to reality & stop believing his fantasies are facts.”

“John Kerry is a stain on American foreign policy that is ignorant of the issues. He has chosen to eternalize his legacy as the worst secretary of state in history that chose to stab his closest ally in the back while rivers of blood flowed like water across the Middle-East,” continued Revivi. “I can personally attest to the fact that he knows very little about the realities in Judea & Samaria & instead chooses to defame us from afar by repeating fictitious mantras against us.

“I’d like to remind the outgoing American administration that Israel’s building policy is made in Jerusalem by our democratically elected government. It is the Israeli government that was elected by an overwhelming majority of the Israeli people who supports building in our ancestral homeland.

“Our rights to this land are fully legal and cannot be refuted; this is the reason that proclamations are being made instead providing solid legal arguments against us. Nearly half a million Israelis currently reside on the strategic highlands of Judea and Samaria overlooking seventy percent of Israel’s population and industrial base, no amount of speeches or resolutions can reverse this reality,” he concluded.

13.City of David unveils latest groundbreaking archeological discovery to mark jubilee year

By Daniel K. Eisenbud JPost.com 12/27/2016 19:34

Archaeological discovery in Jerusalem raises question: Who was Horkanus?

Regev: UN resolution is ridiculous, cannot undo thousands of years of Jewish history.

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Culture & Sports Minister Miri Regev & Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat attend City of David archeological unveiling.(photo credit:Daniel K. Eisenbud)

Political, religious & historic luminaries gathered underground at the City of David National Park’s archeological site on Tues. to unveil a restored 2,000-year-old road leading to the Western Wall & condemn last week’s UN resolution against settlement construction.
As rain & sleet poured down, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Culture & Sport Minister Miri Regev & Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat stood together several meters under the Givati parking lot in Shiloah/Silwan to light a large silver menorah at the end of the ancient road.

Shortly after unveiling an official plaque celebrating the milestone, Regev took the UN Security Council member nations & US President Barack Obama, to task for deeming Jewish construction beyond the 1949 Armistice Line a “flagrant violation” of international law.
“Mr. President Barack Obama, I am standing here, on Hanukkah, on the same road on which my forefathers walked 2,000 years ago,” said Regev defiantly. “No resolution in any international forum is as strong as the steadfast stones on this street.”
Noting several of the 14 countries that participated in the resolution – including New Zealand, Ukraine, Senegal & Malaysia – the minister added that “no other people in the world has such a connection & link to their land.”
Listening intently as they sat on makeshift wooden benches a few meters away with several MKs, included the three Israeli paratroopers immortalized in an iconic 1967 photograph after helping liberate the Old City and the Western Wall.
“I’m excited to be here today at this event to show where ancient pilgrims once walked near the Wall we liberated 50 years ago,” said Zion Karasenti, as fellow fighters Yitzak Yifat & Haim Oshri nodded their approval.
“Nothing & no UN resolution, will ever take the Western Wall away from us.”
The hours-long ceremony, initiated to officially begin Jerusalem’s jubilee-year celebrations, also featured rare relics, including millennia-old ballistic balls, jugs & jewelry, discovered by archeologists who excavated the once well-travelled road during the Second Temple period.
The approximately 50-meter roadway, built near the Herodian Pool of Siloam, where pilgrims once immersed themselves, begins south of the City of David & ends at the foot of the Western Wall’s Robinson’s Arch.
“Nearly 2,000 years after the Great Revolt against the Romans, our paratroopers entered Lion’s Gate & realized the eternal dream of the Jewish people,” Regev continued, after Amar led a prayer.
“The dream of the Jews in Yemen, Germany, Ethiopia, Poland, Morocco & Russia – to return to Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people, a symbol of holiness & justice. Fifty years ago, we made that hope reality.”
“Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, returned to be unified,” added a visibly emotional Regev. “And will never agree to be divided again.”
Holding a rare coin discovered during the protracted excavation, the minister said last month’s UNESCO vote denying Judaism’s connection to its holiest site, the Temple Mount, can never obviate historic truths. “This coin, like many other findings, is evidence of the historical truth and our deep connection to Jerusalem,” said Regev.
“UNESCO announced several weeks ago that there is no such connection. The voting in Paris is ridiculous – you cannot undo a history of thousands of years. So, today we respond to this historical distortion with a clear voice: Jews lived in Jerusalem & the Jews will continue to live in Jerusalem.”
Regev continued: “Jews built Jerusalem & the Jews will continue to build in Jerusalem. So it was 2,000 years ago & so it remains today, and forever.”

14.Obama’s Fitting Finish By Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal 12/26/16

In the list of low points in U.S. foreign policy, the betrayal of Israel ranks high.

Barack Obama’s decision to abstain from, and therefore allow, last week’s vote to censure Israel at the U.N. Security Council is a fitting capstone for what’s left of his foreign policy. Strategic half-measures, underhanded tactics and moralizing gestures have been the president’s style from the beginning. Israelis aren’t the only people to feel betrayed by the results.

Also betrayed: Iranians, whose 2009 Green Revolution in heroic protest of a stolen election Mr. Obama conspicuously failed to endorse for fear of offending the ruling theocracy.

Iraqis, who were assured of a diplomatic surge to consolidate the gains of the military surge, but who ceased to be of any interest to Mr. Obama the moment U.S. troops were withdrawn, and only concerned him again when ISIS neared the gates of Baghdad.

Syrians, whose initially peaceful uprising against anti-American dictator Bashar Assad Mr. Obama refused to embrace, and whose initially moderate-led uprising Mr. Obama failed to support, and whose sarin- & chlorine-gassed children Mr. Obama refused to rescue, his own red lines notwithstanding.

Ukrainians, who gave up their nuclear weapons in 1994 with formal U.S.

assurances that their “existing borders” would be guaranteed, only to see Mr. Obama refuse to supply them with defensive weapons when Vladimir Putin invaded their territory 20 years later.

Pro-American Arab leaders, who expected better than to be given ultimatums from Washington to step down, and who didn’t anticipate the administration’s tilt toward the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate political opposition, and toward Tehran as a responsible negotiating partner.

Most betrayed: Americans.

Mr. Obama promised a responsible end to the war in Iraq. We are again fighting in Iraq. He promised victory in Afghanistan. The Taliban are winning. He promised a reset with Russia. We are enemies again. He promised the containment of Iran. We are witnessing its ascendancy in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. He promised a world free of nuclear weapons. We are stumbling into another age of nuclear proliferation.

He promised al Qaeda on a path to defeat. Jihad has never been so rampant and deadly.

These are the results. They would be easier to forgive if they hadn’t so often been reached by disingenuous and dishonorable means.

The administration was deceptive about the motives for the 2012 Benghazi attack. It was deceptive about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s service record, and the considerations that led it to exchange five Taliban leaders for his freedom. It was deceptive about when it began nuclear negotiations with Iran. It was deceptive about the terms of the deal.

It continues to be deceptive about the fundamental aim of the agreement, which has less to do with curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions than with aligning Washington’s interests with Tehran’s.

Now the administration is likely being deceptive about last week’s U.N. vote, claiming it did not promote, craft or orchestrate a resolution that treats the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City as a settlement in illegally occupied territory. Yet in November, John Kerry had a long talk on the subject with the foreign minister of New Zealand, one of the resolution’s sponsors.

“One of the closed-door discussions between United States Secretary of State John Kerry and the New Zealand government today was a potential resolution by the United Nations Security Council on a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict,” the New Zealand Herald reported last month. “‘It is a conversation we are engaged in deeply and we’ve spent some time talking to Secretary Kerry about where the U.S. might go on this,’” the paper added, quoting Foreign Minister Murray McCully.

The Israelis claim to have more evidence along these lines. If so, it means the administration no longer bothers to lie convincingly.

Even this might be excusable, if Mr. Obama at least had the courage of his mistaken convictions, or if his deception were in the service of a worthier end. Instead, we have the spectacle of the U.S. government hiding behind the skirts of the foreign minister of New Zealand—along with eminent co-sponsors, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal—in order to embarrass and endanger a democratic ally in a forum where that ally is already isolated and bullied. In the catalog of low points in American diplomacy, this one ranks high.

After the Carter administration pulled a similar stunt against Israel at the Security Council in December 1980, the Washington Post published an editorial that does the paper honor today.

“It cannot be denied,” the editors wrote, “that there is a pack and that it hounds Israel shamelessly and that this makes it very serious when the United States joins it.” The editorial was titled “Joining the Jackals.”

Unlike Mr. Carter, Mr. Obama hasn’t joined the jackals. He has merely opened the door wide to them, whether at the U.N. or in the skies over Syria or in the killing fields in Ukraine. The United States abstains:

What a fitting finish to this ruinous presidency.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/obamas-fitting-finish-1482795381

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Women For Israel’s Tomorrow (Women in Green) POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel mailto:wfit2@womeningreen.org

15.International Anti-Semitic Smokescreen * Happy Hanukah * Arabs Leaving Judea & Samaria