For a few seconds yesterday, it looked like the US was taking a principled stand with Israel at the UN.
Ambassador Susan Rice blocked a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, using her very first veto to do so.
It was the right vote.
Too bad she went and opened her mouth right after.
Visibly angry at having to wield a veto at all, Rice unleashed a vile attack on Israel, using language far worse than anything in the resolution itself.
She growled about the “folly and illegitimacy” of Israel’s settlement construction. She blamed the Jewish state for “devastat[ing] trust . . . and threaten[ing] the prospects for peace.”
She came within a hair’s breadth of joining the jackals of Turtle Bay.
It was an odd scene, as the resolution mirrors official US policy, and has been spoken by Obama — word for word.
Here’s the text: The council “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity, which is a serious obstacle to the peace process.”
Here’s Obama in 2009: The US “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements” because construction “undermines efforts to achieve peace.”
So why vote against it?
Rice said the UN is an improper venue — the only way to create a Palestinian state is through direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Which is certainly true.
Trouble is, those talks folded last year — thanks in large part to Obama’s meddling over the settlements.
Back in 2009, Obama took even the Palestinians by surprise in demanding a total settlement freeze, which forced them into a corner: They couldn’t let the US take a harder line than their own.
When Israel agreed to a 10-month freeze, it made no difference: The Palestinians still refused to negotiate.
That damage done, Team Obama seems keen on ignoring the lessons of its own meddling in the past two years.
As Rice said yesterday, “It is the Israelis’ and Palestinians’ conflict, and even the best-intentioned outsiders cannot resolve it for them.”
Going forward, we hope the White House will follow to its own advice.