The history of anti-Israel hostility at the UN is long and ugly. That history has had close to a fifty-year run. It's a history of bigotry against the Jewish state that was captured more than 30 years ago by the last American pro-Israel UN Ambassador, Jeane Kilpatrick. She used the following words to describe how successfully the PLO has driven the UN's anti-Israel agenda:
"The long march through the UN has produced many benefits for the PLO. It has created a people where there was none; an issue where there was none; a claim where there was none. Now the PLO is seeking to create a state where there already is one [Israel]." — Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. ambassador to the UN (1981-85), as quoted by Salim Mansur, "The bigotry against Israel in the UN", gatestoneinstitute, January 15, 2017).
Nothing at the UN has changed since. Indeed, this history of bigotry reached its zenith just last December, when then-US President Barack Obama helped the UN deliver to Israel a diplomatic version of a gift-wrapped IED bomb (ibid). That bomb (the passage of UN Resolution 2334) was the best signal ever given by the UN to the Palestinian Authority (PA) that it could continue with its reject-Israel policy (ibid). It was a gift that said, henceforth, only Israel would be condemned for any future Arab anti-Israel terror (ibid).
There was no pretense in UN 2334. From UN 2334, neither the PA nor Hamas would be held accountable for any of its anti-Israel actions because, with that 2334, Israel was labelled as 'the oppressive occupier', against whom any form of 'resistance' was legitimate. In essence, UN 2334 promised Fatah, the PLO and Hamas a free pass on future terror against Israel (ibid). Murderous acts against Jews in Israel wouldn't be terror. They'd be resistance against 'occupation'.
That December, 2016 vote demanded that Israel halt all building in the Biblical, Jewish homeland of Judea-Samaria. The Resolution essentially certified that this Biblical Jewish parcel of land was not legally 'Jewish' but rather territory that belonged exclusively to a non-existent Islamic 'Palestinian people'.
As a measure of the Israel-hostility present in the UN, the packed Council chamber (where this vote occurred) broke into a loud applause the moment US UN Ambassador Samantha Power abstained--an act of betrayal against Israel that assured the passage of the Resolution (Peter Beaumont, "Israel rejects 'shameful' UN Resolution amid criticism of Netanyahu", guardian, December 24, 2016).
So far as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was concerned, that abstention proved that the Obama administration had no interest whatsoever in protecting Israel. “The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN", Netanyahu said, "it colluded with it behind the scenes” (Chris Enloe, "Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu slams Obama for UN 'gang up' against Israel", theblaze, December 24, 2016).
Because the US, China, France, Britain and Russia all have veto power at the UN Security Council, no Muslim-driven anti-Israel power-play can pass without the direct or indirect assistance of these countries (Mansur, ibid). Without Big-power complicity, Jew-hating anti-Israel Muslim countries simply could not get such Resolutions passed at the UN (ibid).
A single veto from one of those 5 Big Powers is enough to kill any anti-Israel Resolution. In the past, the US has provided that veto. Through that US veto, Israel had historically (for the most part) been protected from UN bigotry. But in December, 2016, the US refused to protect Israel. That refusal assured that Muslim-driven bigotry against Israel would prevail. It did, with UN 2334.
New US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley saw this bigotry the moment she walked into the UN in February, 2017. She was shocked (Nikki Haley, "Press conference after attending first UN Security Council Consultations Meeting on the Middle East", americanrhetoric, February 16, 2017). As a new-comer to the UN, untutored in the ways of the UN, she was appalled at how intense the Israel-bashing was (ibid). About that bashing, she said that, while she had heard it existed, "you can't comprehend how ridiculous it is" (David Gerstman, "Haley puts UN on notice: the days of Israel-bashing are over", legalinsurrection, march 27, 2017).
Think about the Obama administration. Its UN Ambassador sat in this Israel-bashing world for eight years. Never once did and US UN official mention how 'ridiculous' the Israel-bashing was. Never once did a US UN official speak out against it in public.
They all saw it. They all ignored it. They all turned a blind eye to it.
Nikki Haley also saw it. But she refused to turn a blind eye. She spoke of it the very first time she encountered it. She did not hesitate to call it what it was: hostile, bigoted bias against the Middle East's only democracy (americanrhetoric, ibid).
The Obama UN administration saw this same Israel-bashing bigotry. It saw the hate every day--for years. It did nothing.
Never forget that. Obama plans to return to the headlines ("Holder: Obama preparing to get back into political spotlight", foxnews, March 2, 2017; and, Adam Edelman, "Obama, Merkel will meet in Germany on first day of Trump's trip to Europe [next month]", nydailynews, April 11, 2017). He's going to come back to try to haunt Trump.
The press will help him. It'll make him look like a hero next to Trump.
When that happens, you should remember what he did to Israel at the UN. You should remember his true nature.
Never forget it.
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