January 26, 2011

Will Obama Repeat Carter's U.N. Mistake on Israel?

By Benyamin Korn
An anti-Israel resolution, coming up before the United Nations Security Council.  A Democratic president in a quandary over what position to take. Cracks appearing in the Jewish community's traditional Democratic leanings, just as the campaign season heats up.Sounds like Barack Obama's latest foreign policy conundrum?  Try Jimmy Carter in the spring of 1980.  Carter's decision had fateful consequences for his reelection campaign.  Obama's may, too.On Saturday, March 1, 1980, Carter's ambassador at the United Nations, Donald McHenry, cast America's vote in favor of U.N. Security Council resolution 456.  The text contained the familiar litany of absurd and one-sided charges against Israeli actions in what the resolution repeatedly called "the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem."The inclusion of Jerusalem was the kicker.  While the Carter administration had never accepted Israel's unification and annexation of Jerusalem in...(Read Full Article)