title: the splcs libelous new report on antimuslim extremists
text: originally published by the jerusalem post  
  in one of the immortal lines of godfather   mafia boss michael corleone discusses the fate of his brother who betrayed him with his enforcer i dont want anything to happen to him while my mother is alive corleone said 
  message received the brother was murdered after their mothers funeral last week it was reported that the obama administration has delivered a message to the palestinian authority the administration has warned the pa that the us will veto any antiisrael resolution brought before the un security council before the us presidential elections on november  message received open season on israel at the security council will commence november  the palestinians are planning appropriately israel needs to plan too israels most urgent diplomatic mission today is to develop and implement a strategy that will outflank president barack obama in his final eight weeks in power lobbying the administration is pointless obama has waited eight years to exact his revenge on israel for not supporting his hostile strategically irrational policies and he has no interest in letting bygones be bygones before turning to what israel must do first we need to understand what israel can do a good place to begin is by considering what just transpired at unesco where twice in a week unesco bodies resolved to erase  years of jewish history in jerusalem and the temple mount the fight that israel waged at unesco is not the fight it needs to wage at the security council the stakes at the security council are far higher like the un general assembly unescos decisions are nonbinding declarations that have no legal or operational significance as such there is no reason to expend great resources to fight them for israel the goal of the fight at unesco is not to defeat antiisrael initiatives that is impossible given the palestinians automatic majority the purpose of the fight at unesco is to humiliate european governments that side with antisemitic initiatives and to weaken the congenitally antiisrael body itself the government achieved both of these objectives italian prime minister matteo renzis disavowal of his own governments abstention from the vote on the first resolution  like the similar position taken after the fact by the mexican government  was a diplomatic victory for israel so too the fact that unescos own secretarygeneral irina bukova felt compelled to disavow her own agencys actions by rejecting the resolutions denial of the jewish peoples ties to jerusalem was a significant victory for israel her statement was deeply damaging for unesco and its reputation finally the fact that tanzania and the philippines voted against the resolution was a testament to israels capacity to convince other governments to abandon their traditional propalestinian voting pattern the palestinians won the vote at unesco because they are more powerful diplomatically than israel they have an automatic antiisrael majority but they werent empowered by their victory to the contrary they were bloodied by it in a sign of their weakening hold on member nations the palestinians and jordanians felt compelled to send a threatening letter to the members of unescos world heritage committee lest they dare to vote against the resolution powerful players dont make threats they dont need to israels experience at unesco teaches us that there are governments that are open to counteroffers israel doesnt need to hide in americas shadow it is capable of working on its own to blunt the impact of the palestinians automatic majority and it will need to use all of its resources to fend off a usbacked assault at the security council unlike unesco the security council can pass legally binding resolutions israel needs to be prepared to bring all of its resources to bear to prevent such a resolution from being adopted against it obamas intention to abandon israel at the security council means that israel comes to this battle severely hobbled but there is one advantage to the uss betrayal over the years israels ability to trust the us to veto antiisrael resolutions at the security council was been a mixed blessing on the one hand the us has secured israel from diplomatic assaults but on the other hand our ability to trust washington has made us diplomatically lazy and ineffective safe in washingtons shadow we have behaved as through all diplomacy is public diplomacy that is we have pretended that statecraft begins and ends with making the moral or strategic case for our side against the other guys but public diplomacy is just one diplomatic tool the syrian regime for instance has no moral case for securing international support bashar assad didnt convince russian president vladimir putin to support him by arguing that he is better than alternative regimes he bought putins support by offering him permanent air and naval bases in syria then there is morocco another weak state with no public diplomacy case to make last march un secretarygeneral ban kimoon outraged rabat when he acknowledged the plain fact that western sahara which morocco occupies is occupied territory morocco quickly secured the support of spain and france and launched an allout onslaught against ban how did morocco manage moroccos most powerful diplomatic resource is its control over migration flows from north africa to europe anytime it wishes rabat can open the migratory floodgates just as easily as it can keep them shut and the french and spanish know it in less than a month ban issued repeated abject apologies game set match morocco from reports to date it appears that shortly after the us elections on november  the malaysians or egyptians will submit a palestinianbacked resolution that defines israeli communities in united jerusalem judea and samaria as illegal if the resolution is brought to a vote the us will fail to veto it such a resolution or a resolution obligating israel to withdraw to the  armistice lines would cause israel grave harm so what resources does israel have to prevent this from happening of course we have public diplomacy and that might work with some friendly nations but it wont get us over the top we need to learn from the syrian and moroccan examples and consider what we have to offer security council members in exchange for their support in scuttling the approaching onslaught against us one such resource is the us congress israels allies in congress are sickened by the obama administrations devastating middle east policies a solid majority of lawmakers can be trusted to support actions that will reinforce israels position israel has other resources as well that we can trade on we have natural gas and we have technologies that the governments of the world require to surmount the challenges of the  century there is no reason to give these resources away when we can trade them for diplomatic support as for the palestinians as the unesco vote showed they are less popular now than at any time in the past  years all they have to offer is threats and antisemitism both are powerful weapons but they are no longer invincible israels goal must be to use our resources at the security council in a manner that will make it impossible for obama to enable an antiisrael resolution to pass a method for achieving this goal has two components the first component is to convince a friendly country on the security council to propose a balanced resolution that would counter the palestinianbacked israelbashing one such a resolution could include four points first it could deplore efforts to deny jewish history in jerusalem and the temple mount second it can condemn the paplo for their continued unlawful funding of terrorists third it can urge israel to restrain settlement construction in areas that in previous negotiations have been identified as likely territory for a future palestinian state fourth it can call on israel and the pa to reinstate negotiations immediately without preconditions israel has friendly ties with a few security council members among them uruguay and new zealand in the final weeks of the obama era it is possible that israel will be able to convince one of them to submit a balanced resolution along these lines obama would be hardpressed to oppose such a resolution in favor of one that singles israel out for rebuke but that still is insufficient obama can make uruguay and new zealand a better offer if he wishes and so we move to the second aspect of the plan if we learn nothing else from the obama era we must recognize that the time has come for israel to stop sufficing with just one security council veto most states have several and we need a few more russia today is the best place to start our search for a second veto putin is a dealmaker as his agreement with assad showed he is willing to consider attractive offers obviously israel wont offer russia bases but we do have other things to offer putin in exchange for a veto for instance in exchange for a russian veto at the security council israel can offer putin to lobby the us congress to cancel us sanctions against russia over russias annexation of crimea israel has no dog in that fight and the sanctions are not getting the us anywhere putin might go for the deal for two reasons first by stepping into the breach and defending israel against obama he will humiliate obama second if israel succeeds with the congress he will reap economic rewards for his part putin wouldnt even have to openly side with israel all he would have to do is announce that in the interests of regional stability russia will not support an unbalanced resolution on israel and the palestinians if putin supports a balanced resolution obama will be checkmated his plan to take revenge on israel for not following him off the strategic cliff will be foiled israel will have survived his presidency none of this will be easy and success is far from assured there are many more ways for israel to fail than succeed our diplomatic weakness remains a millstone around our neck but as the unesco resolutions showed attacking israel is no longer cost free we are not powerless in the grip of circumstances we have cards to play and now is the time to play them for all they are worth