Gosh, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think Obama was trying to scuttle the ship as he makes way to abandon her in a couple of weeks. Obama has been doing his best to rile up Russia, and giving Putin plenty of credit for interfering in U.S. elections. That might be ok, if we could trust the intelligence, but when Obama cooks the books to make them say whatever it is that he wants to say, can you blame us for being skeptical about his motives? No, you cannot.

Yesterday, Obama turned his attention to messing with Israel, a sovereign with whom we are supposed to be allied. But he has done his best to sever those ties since he’s been president and yesterday he gave one final middle finger to Bibi and the Jews. Obama allowed the United States to abstain from vetoing the U.N. Security Council resolution which condemns Israeli settlements as being in violation of international law. This breaks from previous U.S. policy. If Obama had used the U.S.’s veto power the resolution would have been dead. Now it is virtually irrevocable.

Elliot Abrams at The Weekly Standard describes the damage:

Does the resolution matter? It does. The text declares that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” This may turn both settlers—even those in major blocs like Maale Adumim, that everyone knows Israel will keep in any peace deal—and Israeli officials into criminals in some countries, subject to prosecution there or in the International Criminal Court. The text demands “that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.” Now add this wording to the previous line and it means that even construction in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City is “a flagrant violation under international law.” The resolution also “calls upon all States, to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.” This is a call to boycott products of the Golan, the West Bank, and parts of Jerusalem, and support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.

Amazingly, President Elect Trump nearly had this under control yesterday when he persuaded Egypt to withdraw the resolution. No sooner did Egypt withdraw, then

four nations with precisely zero security interests at stake in the Middle East — New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela, and Senegal — revived the resolution and forced a vote.

….

[T]he Trump administration is powerless to revoke the resolution: It would have to introduce and pass a new resolution, and either Russia or China would be sure to veto it. Thus, Israel will find itself at the bargaining table in any future peace negotiation with Palestinian territorial demands backed by the U.N.’s most powerful body.

Well done Obama. You’ve done one heck of a job!

Jonah Goldberg cuts to the chase:

It is now the official position of the United States of America that the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians. That is madness.

From the editors at NRO:

The world will soon move on from Barack Obama, but he’s doing his best to extend his legacy of failure and appeasement. The Palestinians deserved a rebuke. Instead they received a gift. Our closest Middle Eastern ally will pay the price.

It was to be expected that Israel's greatest ally would act in accordance with the values that we share –

— Ambassador Danon (@dannydanon) December 23, 2016

Chuck Shumer split from Obama on this action too:

Incoming Senate Democratic Leader @SenSchumer urges US to veto UN resolution on Israeli settlements pic.twitter.com/zZtCjxcHB4

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 23, 2016

Interestingly, at the time this week when we thought the resolution was dead, Charles Krauthammer explained how Obama’s action of abstaining would have been devastating to Israel, and an act of personal revenge, and more importantly, how Trump’s intervention was unprecedented and welcome in this situation.

So is there really any argument that Obama is not trying to do the most damage to the U.S. as he is on his way out? With this action even your liberal friends have to agree, Obama is no friend to Israel and he never was.