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Assessing the Post-Veto Fallout
(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - Obama followed in the footsteps of his predecessors and refused to allow the UN body to brand Israel a criminal lawbreaker. But the unnecessary explanation given after the vote that branded the Jewish state's position on the issue of settlements as "illegitimate" undermined any notion of U.S. support for Israel. The talk of "illegitimacy" was applied not only to the homes of the more than a quarter million Israelis who live in the West Bank, but also to the more than 200,000 who live in the parts of Jerusalem that were illegally occupied by Jordan between 1949 and 1967, as Obama treats 40-year-old Jewish neighborhoods in Israel's ancient capital as illegal settlements. Had the U.S. not vetoed the resolution, it would have been the final signal that this administration really was determined to cut loose the Israelis. But by showing that the veto was cast reluctantly and with ill will, the effect is not much different.