President Obama has learned well from Majority Leader McConnell.  A few days ago, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, acting under direction of Secretary of State Kerry, who was himself obeying a diktat from President Obama, abstained from a Security Council resolution condemning Israel's legal settlement of the territory known as "the West Bank."  As any student of history and international conventions knows, annexation and settlement of territories captured as a result of a "defensive war" are perfectly legal.  I won't go into the hows and whys of that in this space.  Suffice it to say, there is no international convention preventing Israel from outright annexation of the West Bank, as those lands were captured as a result of Israel winning a war in which she was attacked first.

What is important is what this decision enabled and more importantly, what it precluded.  First of all, it gave away U.S. advantage, thus enabling passage of the measure – a measure that codified Israel as being in violation of "international law," thus placing her soldiers assigned to security missions in the West Bank at risk of being put in the dock at The Hague.

Second, this decision is difficult for subsequent U.S. administrations to undo.  Now, instead of a simple U.S. veto to prevent this particular hostile U.N. action toward the State of Israel, the U.S. needs all of the permanent members of the Security Council to agree or at least abstain from any corrective action the U.S. may propose.

When, you might ask, have we seen this particular paradigm recently?  It seems to me, we saw pretty much this same thing when the U.S. Senate, along with the House, approved the Iran Nuclear "treaty."  As I'm sure we all know, a treaty in which the U.S. is a party must be "consented" to by two thirds of the senators present.  Led by Senator McConnell, the Republican-majority Senate, along with a Republican House, abdicated the Senate's treaty power and instead passed the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.  Much like the U.S. Security Council abstention, this bill reversed the constitutional balance of power when "consenting" to treaties.  Instead of requiring 67 votes to ratify or consent to the Iran nuclear deal (treaty), the Senate must now obtain 60 votes to overcome a filibuster to stop that same "treaty."

Note: From Senator Bob Corker's (R) website:

The bill passed the Senate 98 to 1 and the House of Representatives 400 to 25.

Thanks, Senator McConnell – and all the Republicans who voted with you to undermine the Senate's treaty oversight power.  As Republicans, we have indeed met the enemy, and he is us.

Mike Ford is a sometime contributor to American Thinker, frequently edited by his lovely bride, a retired high school principal.