WarSclerotic

The poetry of UN politics, Israel Hayom, Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, December 25, 2016

Obama has cemented his legacy, and now we can focus on our own. What should we do, what act of Jewish defiance should we partake in, to show the world what’s what? They can write words on paper and shake their fists while we settle our land and say our ancient blessings. One side is a paper tiger; the other is a lion that roars.

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I actually think it’s poetic. Just as Hanukkah, a festival of Jewish resistance, was approaching, the world turned on the Jewish state and an “ally” showed its true colors.

Much is being said about U.S. President Barack Obama’s choice to have his country abstain from voting on the U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal, and much will continue to be said, but none of us can really be that surprised. This was an obvious move by Obama, a last hurrah from a man who from day one set himself apart as a breaker of ties and holder of grudges. He was never a friend of Israel, and combined with his not-too-subtle need for pompous pageantry, this last kick in the gut toward Israel was a given.

The emotional upheaval notwithstanding, this act actually means very little for the outgoing president. But for others, it means all the more. What Obama did by choosing not to veto the vote was to re-elect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and throw support behind Donald Trump that the president-elect could have never expected to receive otherwise.

Until now, liberal Jews have supported and defended Obama and his policies, but when he set out to humiliate Israel, he also ended up shaming and humiliating a lot of Jewish Democrats, thus losing his party a whole host of voters to settle a personal score. Liberal Jews stuck by him through foreign policy blunders, anti-religious policies and personal spats with the Israeli leadership, but his ego got the best of him one too many times, and now minds are opening to Trump that otherwise would have stayed closed. As for Netanyahu, he is much too smart to be outraged over this resolution without teeth, and he knows that such biased bullying will do nothing to lessen the strength of the Jewish state but will only give him a more powerful mandate to lead.

And what this vote mean for us, the Jewish people? Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, once said that our future does not depend on what other nations say, but what Jews do, and what better time to be reminded of that than now, in this holiday season? These bills, proposals and outrageous resolutions do not attack the Jewish state; they attack our Jewishness, and it is with Jewishness we need to respond. Rather than focus outward, with anger at the obvious, we should focus inward at the core of what they hate and the heart of what we could be.

As I light my Hannukah candles and say the blessing in the words of my forefathers, I keep the codes and laws given to us through the original deed to our land. While some choose to cry out for our delegitimization, my actions and choices award me legitimacy, and the more they try to make me less of what I am, the louder and stronger I become.

This resolution was passed to delegitimize the State of Israel, but chances are it will lead to the delegitimization of the United Nations. They overplayed their hand and will ultimately end up losing. The only question is what we as Jews choose to do, and what choices we make when it comes to our survival.

This vote was not about Obama, Netanyahu or Trump, and it is neither more nor less important than any of the others before it. The more we shout and cry about it, the more we give Obama what he wants and enable him to feel like a trailblazer, when he is little more than a petulant child. This vote is about us, and we should keep it that way, honoring the message of the Maccabees and the struggle that brought us here and has kept us here until this day.

Obama has cemented his legacy, and now we can focus on our own. What should we do, what act of Jewish defiance should we partake in, to show the world what’s what? They can write words on paper and shake their fists while we settle our land and say our ancient blessings. One side is a paper tiger; the other is a lion that roars.

Happy Hanukkah.

This entry was posted on December 25, 2016 at 3:48 PM and is filed under Israel - Jewish state, Israel and UN, Israeli settlements, Obama and Israel, Obama and Jews, UN Security Council. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Israel - Jewish state, Israel and UN, Israeli settlements, Obama and Israel, Obama and Jews, UN Security Council