Breaking News: Obama Set To Abandon Israel At UN

For long time Obama watchers this comes as no surprise. Bill Kristol is reporting that the United States plans to abandon Israel at the UN Security Councel next week. According to the Weekly Standard Editor, the Obama administration has been informing foreign governments that it will support a resolution to set up an independent UN Commission to investigate Israeli actions in the guerrilla flotilla incident.

Apparently the President does not care

a) this is an extraordinary singling out of Israel, since all kinds of much worse incidents happen around the world without spurring UN investigations.

b) that the investigation will be one-sided, focusing entirely on Israeli behavior and not on Turkey or on Hamas.

c) that this sets a terrible precedent for outside investigations of incidents involving U.S. troops or intelligence operatives as we conduct our own war on terror.

The most recent 'independent" investigation of Israel conducted by the UN, the Goldstone Report, threw any standards of investigation out the window. The report violated international standards for inquries, including UN rules on fact- finding. The Commission systematically favored witnesses and evidence put forward by anti-Israel advocates, and dismissed evidence and testimony that would undermine its case. The commission relied extensively on mediating agencies, especially UN and NGOs, which have a documented hostility to Israel; and reproduces earlier reports and claims from these agencies. And that's just for a start. It is clear that Barack Obama is looking for the UN to create another anti-Israel Kangaroo court.

While UN Ambassador Susan Rice is reported to have played an important role in pushing for U.S. support of a UN investigation, the decision is, one official stressed, of course the president's. The government of Israel has been consulting with the U.S. government on its own Israeli investigative panel, to be led by a retired supreme court justice, that would include respected international participants, including one from the U.S. But the Obama administration is reportedly saying that such a “kosher panel” is not good enough to satisfy the international community, or the Obama White House.

Remember, earlier this week Obama spoke about his desire for an international of inquiry. Also, Ambassador Rice's recommendation was foreshadowed when she remained mute during the UN's Human Right Council condemnation of Israel over the indecent.

There is the chance that this might all be a trail balloon leaked to Kristol. The White House may just want to check to seek if they can get away with this action without arousing the pro-Israel Democratic Party supporters in Congress. This group has been lacking the guts to confront the President since he began distance himself from Israel last year.

Its not an unusual move, in April the White House leaked a trial balloon about the US imposing a solution on Israel:

Reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times this week said former U.S. national security advisers Brent Scowcroft, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Sandy Berger met with Jones in the White House last month and recommended that the U.S. advance stalled peace talks by proposing its own peace proposal. President Barack Obama attended part of the meeting and listened to the proposal, the reports said.

When that report was leaked there was very little objection from the Democratic Party, while the GOP stood up to protect Israel from the will of the administration.

Beginning with his Cairo Speech, Barack Obama has been slowly distancing the United States from Israel, while at the same time ingratiating himself to the Muslim nations. If this action does indeed happen, it may be that Obama is looking to accelerate the pace of that distancing.