The Obama Administration has broken tradition by not supporting Israel. The United States has always supported Israel publicly and throughout the United Nations for over the past 30 years. However, Barack Obama has broken this tradition and has allowed the United States and the United Nations to condemn Israel. Israel has expanded Jewish settlements into Palestinian regions. This condemnation from the United Nations was allowed to happen because the United States was absent from the vote and they had veto power over the ordeal.
Throughout Obama’s presidency he has warned Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about Israel expanding their territories into Palestinians' lands. President Barack Obama believes that the expansion of Israel into disputed territories will pose a great obstacle toward gaining peace in the Middle East.
According to multiple news sources, President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu have not gotten along in these past several years. When the vote of the United Nations was held this past Friday, 14 members voted in favor, while the United States did not put in a vote. This was Obama’s act to abstain from the vote to demonstrate that we disapprove of Israel’s actions publicly with the thought that international entities would believe our neutral stance. Instead, Obama’s actions led to outrage in the international news. Many people are against the action of the United Nations condemning Israel and many are for it.
But what does this tell us about the future? It is widely known that President-elect Donald Trump is in continuous support of Israel and he seems to be outraged by this action. Trump has defended Israel against criticism for the settlement expansion and opposed the resolution set forth by the United Nations. The resolution states that Israel’s settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal and demands that Israel should stop expanding into Palestinian land. Diplomats at the United Nations have hoped to pass a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before President Obama leaves office because of President-elect Trump’s entry into office. Once Trump becomes inaugurated and is officially President of the United States, his administration will block any action that the United Nations wants to take to criticize Israel.
In my opinion, I believe that the United States allowing the United Nations to condemn Israel and its actions will cost us more trouble within the Middle East. We have intervened within other countries and their politics for too long and for the majority of the time we make the situation worse. Do not get me wrong, I believe that we should help other countries in need and help support them if there are others suffering. But, when it comes to intervening within international disputes that have been around for so long and are not within our nation I believe that we should not intervene. It is not our country, it is not our culture, and it is not our fight. We have our own battles within our own country that we still need to resolve. Battles that deal with racism, income inequality and with annihilating poverty. Who are we to fix others battles when we cannot fix our own?
