Will Biden Take Action Against Israel at the UN, Similar to Obama’s Move in 2016?

JERUSALEM — Following a proposal by 10 non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for a binding resolution ending Israel’s counter-terrorism operation in Gaza, concerns are mounting that the Biden administration might endorse the measure to deliver a parting shot to the Netanyahu government.

Relations between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been strained since Israel launched its defensive operation against the U.S.-designated terrorist group on Oct. 7, 2023.

UN experts speculate that Biden may seek retribution against Netanyahu at the UN, reminiscent of President Obama’s actions in 2016, where an anti-Israel resolution was allowed to pass weeks before President-elect Donald Trump took office.

“Without a doubt, this is a calculated attempt to Trump-proof the failed Biden agenda. Once a Security Council resolution is adopted, the Russians and the Chinese would veto any attempt to revoke it. Americans of all political stripes need to remind President Biden’s lame-duck administration that they didn’t come out to vote only to hand over control to the Russians, the Chinese and the United Nations,” Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices, told Digital.

The proposed Security Council draft resolution fails to secure the release of over 100 hostages held by the terrorist organization, including Americans. The anti-Israel measure echoes President Obama’s punitive council action against Israel during the lame duck phase of his administration.

A version of the draft was leaked to Al Jazeera, which the Israel Defense Forces has accused of .

Israel’s ambassador to the world body, Danny Danon, told Digital, “It’s shameful that this proposed resolution fails to link the call for a cease-fire with the  still held in brutal captivity by Hamas in Gaza. It is a one-sided resolution and shouldn’t pass.”

Russia’s mission to the U.N. on Wednesday wrote that it “expresses its full support for the draft resolution on Gaza introduced by ‘the ten’ non-permanent members of the UNSC, which contains a direct demand for an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire and the release of all hostages. We also call for this draft to be put to a vote without further delay.”

Russia, along with the U.S., China, France and Britain are the five permanent members of the body.

 

Israel  of permitting passage of a council resolution in 2016 that censured Israel for the building of Israeli residences in Judea and Samaria, known more widely as the West Bank. Fears are growing among supporters of the Jewish state that the White House will use its lame-duck period to punish Israel again.

Danon told a group of journalists on Thursday, “While I don’t think the U.S. would let the resolution pass, there might be other attempts to alienate and delegitimize Israel during the transition period, like we saw in 2016.”

However, when asked at a press briefing last week if the Biden administration plans to replicate President Obama’s enabling in 2016 of what was deemed as an anti-Israel resolution by the Jewish state and many Trump officials shortly before Obama left office, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “So you should not read this – into this answer I’m about to give anything. You shouldn’t read in one way or the other. I cannot speculate on how we will vote on resolutions that are not yet even before the Security Council. Obviously, we will look at any resolution that comes up before the Security Council and make … our judgments based on the interests of the United States, as we always do.”

Digital sent a press a query to the State Department about the newly proposed draft resolution.

Bayefsky added, “Strip away the facade of faux peace, and you find a United Nations and an embittered Biden administration making big plans to do permanent harm to the state of Israel. President Obama produced the template for an end run around a Trump presidency in 2016: enable the U.N. to do the dirty work during the lame-duck term. The endgame is simple: Thwart Congress and the election results by bending American sovereignty to the will of the United Nations.”

“To be very clear, a U.N. Security Council resolution that demands right now an unconditional and permanent cease-fire before the release of every single hostage, before the end of Hamas rocket fire, with Hamas still armed and hell-bent on genocide, is not pro-peace,” Bayefsky continued. “It’s a guarantee of more war. There has never been a cease-fire that Hamas hasn’t broken. So the truth is that the U.N.’s idea of a cease-fire is actually directed at a party of one: Israel. Israel ceases and Hamas fires. A democratic United States needs to shut down these negotiations, period.”

The  of the council are Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and Switzerland.

“The Security Council Trump-proof plan involves setting up a continual barrage of U.N. reports and endless meetings on Israel’s ‘compliance’ with the resolution,” Bayefsky said. “… make no mistake: A Trump-proof production line of secretary-general reports ensures that the U.N. will be constantly throwing gasoline on any American attempt to put out the fire. U.N. reports, meetings and press conferences are not mere hot air. They fan the flames of hate and antisemitism until they blow up not only in Israel and Europe but right here on the streets and campuses of the USA.”