According to one report: “Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sharply criticized President Obama’s administration, after the United Nations Security Council voted to adopt a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlements on Friday, which the United States did not veto”.
It should be noted that all the UN Security Council members (which included the UK) except the USA voted for the resolution. The USA abstained although if it had opposed the motion it would have been able to use its veto power to prevent it passing. The ramifications of the passing of the resolution remains to be seen, although could well prove significant, and while there is jubilation among those who feel this is long overdue (indeed since 1967 when Israel won certain territories following the six-day war) there has been understandable reaction and defiance from the Netanyahu led Israeli government, who have chosen to ignore the resolution as well as some Zionist friends who see this as further evidence of hatred toward Israel.
As those who follow my blogs know, I take particular interest in the fate of Israel. It also creates a conundrum insofar my heart, head and my theology incline me to support Israel and yet oppose it, based on what appears to me their flagrant injustices perpetrated against the non-Jewish people who live in the land they control, including building settlements on the land they occupy. There is a pragmatic consideration based on theological understanding and momentous events unfolding in the Middle East, which even if not involving Israel directly, it is a key factor that can’t be ignored.
In the dying days of the Obama led US administration, in the light of his earlier rhetoric, it is perhaps not a surprise that the USA chose to abstain in the UN vote, fully aware of what the consequences might be. While USA has been Israel’s greatest friend, certainly in terms of financial aid it has given, this as a result of the powerful Zionist influence and Israel being a much welcomed and needed ally in the region, Obama of all recent presidents has been least supportive. He is about to be replaced by Trump who might turn out to be the most supportive of Israel. I fully expect there to be all sorts of sparks to fly in days to come, especially in the light of Middle East instability.
I write, as I often do, by way of putting a stake in the ground concerning a subject I care about. There is so much happening around me that accentuates feelings of consternation. There is a yearning too to get to the bottom of what is going on. Moreover, such are the complexities, that often there is no black or white solution. As a Christian coming from a background that was more inclined to support Israel, God’s chosen people who he has not yet done with despite their disobedience; I will not wash my hands of Israel and consign them to oblivion, as do many of their detractors. Neither will I endorse acts of unrighteousness which, according to my reckoning, Israel has committed against the Palestinian people.
While I see a lot of what is currently unfolding as part of what Bible prophecy might lead me to expect, I do not claim to have specific answers. Regarding the UN resolution, if it were me who could instruct how my country to vote I too may have been inclined to abstain, if not quite bringing myself to support the resolution but not before engaging with the various interested parties. I will do so in full knowledge that the bringing of the resolution was a political act intent on undermining the Israeli government and weakening their bargaining power when it comes to peace negotiations (although demolishing Palestinian settlements to make way for Israeli ones fills me with discomfort). Whatever happens, I will continue to watch and pray, including for the peace of Jerusalem.
JRB Publications 
Dear John Barber!
I have been reading all your publications for the last two years and have found the contents very informative and spiritually reliable, I am a Christian believer and have been so my whole life. I am in addition a retired history teacher and have in my leasure time written articles to Norwegian daily papers, dealing with God’s people, the Jews and their promised land, Israel. I have met so much ignorance among Christian followers, even leaders, that I have felt compelled to act and share with others the relevant publications I now and then happen to come across. In this publication of yours I felt that you have missed some important points about the so called Palestinian people, which has been in focus of my history studies and teatching for many years.. Therefore I send you , my good, Christian brother, a commentary by the author: Alan Clemmons. His outlook on world affairs are rather dark, concerning the Jews because of the Christian people’s negative attitude towards their state.
He is a Republican member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. He was the primary author of the GOP Platform section regarding Israel. In 2015, he was the originating sponsor of the Country’s first state anti-BDS legislation.
The UN Security Council’s passage of Resolution 2334, an outrageous act of hostility personally engineered by President Obama against the State of Israel, has rightly evoked great anger across all parts of the American political spectrum.
This past summer, the Republican Party’s platform section expressing our unequivocal support for Israel, included a key statement made in anticipation of President Obama’s betrayal of our great ally: “We reject the false notion that Israel is an occupier…” Given the anticipated effects of Resolution 2334, this policy statement is critical, as it represents the central tenet of what will now unquestionably be the policy of the Trump Administration and the pro-Israel community.
“Occupier” is nothing more than a polite way of calling Israel a thief, suggesting that Jewish invaders colonized territory belonging to the Arabs, and which therefore must be restored to its rightful, victimized owners. The term is intentionally misused against Israel in order to shape negative misperceptions of her history and legitimacy, while perpetuating a sense of Palestinian-Arab victimhood. To suggest that the Jews are occupiers in a region that has been known as Judea for over 3000-plus years is no less ridiculous than to suggest that Arabs are occupiers in Arabia.
“Occupier” is a legal term whose definition does not apply to Israel under the law. Israel’s legal title and rights to all of its present territory stem directly from an act of international law made in the post-WWI San Remo Agreement, which was then further recognized and incorporated in subsequent binding acts, from the Covenant of the League of Nations all the way through Article 80 of the United Nations’ charter. None of the national and political rights thereby recognized as inherit in the Jewish People have ever been revoked, nullified or superseded by a subsequent act of international law.
The lie of occupation has become essential to anti-Israel forces in the Mideast and around the world, as they persist in efforts to deny and undermine the rights – and indeed the very existence – of the Jewish national home. It is no coincidence, therefore, that Resolution 2334 was entirely predicated on this vicious lie.
The lie of occupation also gives Israel’s enemies a basis to justify terrorism as merely “resistance to occupation.” The antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) uses the word as often as possible in its messaging, as it carries out acts of political and economic warfare upon Israel and her supporters. Thus, it is clear that promoting the common misrepresentation of the Jewish State of Israel as an occupier in the Land of Israel has become the primary antisemitic canard of the present generation, inherently accusing the Jewish People of territorial thievery. This lie whitewashes violence against Israeli Jews, and leads directly to the antisemitic delegitimization and demonization of, and application of double standards to Israel.
The peace process aimed at ending the Arab war on Israel was originally motivated by the basic idea that two incompatible peoples have unfortunately found themselves residing in the same space, and that it is desirable to see them disengaged for the sake of peace. This was the intention of President George W. Bush, and those Israeli prime ministers who chose the path of proposing a two-state solution.
Those who listen carefully will find that, unfortunately, hostile actors have emerged, who exploit support for the peace process in order to promote the lie of occupation. This is the tactic of J Street, President Obama and most member states of the United Nations, who regularly speak of Israel as an occupier and wrongly refer to parts of Israel as being territorially illegitimate.
It is one thing to advocate the two-state solution as a matter of seeking peace, and entirely another when argued as a matter of belief in the lie of occupation. The difficulty in grasping this distinction has escaped far too many supporters of Israel, who unfortunately tend to believe that all who propose the same solution are relative and equivalent in their intentions. They are not. The forwarding of the two-state solution by those who support the lie of occupation, like Barack Obama, simultaneously signals an inherent indictment of Israel as a criminally guilty party.
Donald Trump rejects the false notion that Israel is an occupier, and wholeheartedly helped lead the important expression of policy made by the Republican Party Platform on the matter. He has repeatedly made the promise that as president he will recognize Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capitol of Israel.
Among the top priorities of President-elect Trump in his first 100 days will be the passage of a major bill regulating against commercial discrimination aimed at Israel and its territories, following the lead of 15 states that have already done so. The new administration is clearly prepared to defend the American economy by preventing financial engagement with parties who would at the same time inflict economic harm upon Israeli and American businesses via discrimination promoted by the likes of Resolution 2334 and the BDS Movement.
The most immediate means of disarming the malicious intent of President Obama’s Resolution 2334 is by supporting Trump and the incoming Congress’s efforts to pass such legislation with overwhelming non-partisan support. Israel, and many of our other democratic allies around the world, are counting on us.
Alan Clemmons