Dr. Patrick Slattery and Professor Richard Sloan
The response to the recent vote in the United Nations Security Council over Israeli settlements has caused quite an uproar, which as usual completely misses the relevant points.
The political “right” in the United States has pretty much roundly condemned the Obama administration over not exercising its veto power to block what was otherwise a unanimous vote by the UNSC. Not just the Neocucks, mind you, but even paleo-conservative Pat Buchanan penned an article that, while not exactly condemning the UN resolution, used it as an example of why we should get out of the United Nations. This tacit support of Israel’s position by Buchanan was backed up by his calling war criminal Netanyahu “Bibi” and referring to Israel by the feminine pronoun “she,” which is something that we English speakers don’t do when referring to countries.
On the other hand, it is ridiculous to either praise or criticize Obama for “bitch-slapping” Netanyahu over this vote. Obama spent his entire eight years in office bending over backwards (forwards, more like it) for Israel. He completely shut his eyes to the murderous bombing of Gaza during the month of his inauguration, he signed on to the biggest-ever military give away package to Israel, did Israel’s bidding in fomenting civil war in Syria, and forced Iran into a very unfair nuclear deal that completely ignores Israel’s nuclear arsenal that poses an existential threat to the rest of the world.
