By Elliott Abrams via Mosiac magazine…
Last week, the United Nations General Assembly voted 124 to 14 (with 43 abstentions) to demand that Israel cede all “Occupied Palestinian Territory” to the “state of Palestine.” The resolution includes calls for member states to impose various boycotts and sanctions on Israel and to ensure that their own populations adhere to them.
As Elliott Abrams observes, if Israel were to follow the text, it would have to withdraw even from the Old City of Jerusalem, leaving the Jewish population to be driven out, murdered, or worse. Abrams examines the votes of the “the nice, decent, democratic U.S. allies.”
Many abstained, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. They understood that this was a completely one-sided, unfair, and unrealistic resolution but nevertheless lacked the guts to vote no.
Not only the Israelis lose from these abstentions; so does anyone who thinks the United Nations might ever play a more useful role in the Middle East. (The one piece of good news here was that India abstained; ten years ago it would certainly have voted yes.)
Read the full story on Pressure Points via Mosiac here.
