Only four United Nations members, besides Israel, voted against a U.N. anti-Israel resolution Tuesday that demand Palestinian Authority sovereignty over Israel’s natural resources in Judea and Samaria, including the Jordan Valley.

Areas or Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinian Authority also were included in the non-binding resolution.

The vote was 164-5, with 10 abstentions.

Canada, the United States, the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia voted with Israel.

The draft resolution carried the wordy title ” Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources.”

The measure demands that Israel cease alleged “exploitation, damage, cause of loss or depletion and endangerment” of the natural resources in the “occupied” territories.

Supposed destruction includes what the Palestinian Authority calls “diplomatic terrorism,” meaning the alleged “extensive destruction” of Arab land utility infrastructure, especially during the war against Hamas missile attacks on half of Israel in the summer  of 2014.

Israel has tried to work with the Palestinian Authority on several sewerage system projects but has been turned down.

Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States and now a Knesset Member, said Wednesday that Israel should not boycott or ban Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Trump is scheduled to visit Israel later this month and meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu December 28.

MK Oren, of the Kulanu party, told Maariv today:

Israel must not let itself be dragged into the U.S. presidential political race, but on the other hand, it cannot remain quiet when someone stains an entire community because of their religious beliefs.

We must host the presidential candidate [Trump] as if what he said never was spoken, but on the other hand we must express our reservations on his harmful remarks.

Several Opposition MKs have called on Prime Minister Netanyahu not to meet with him, and some even want him banned from stepping foot in Israel.

They were reacting to Trump’s controversial speech this in which he said that the United States should block Muslim immigrants until the government “can figure out what is going on,” referring to the massacre at San Bernardino two weeks ago.

President Barack Obama is about to see and hear first-hand the radical difference between Shimon “Peace” Peres and his predecessor President ReuvenRivlin.

President Rivlin flew out of Ben Gurion Airport early Tuesday. Besides participating in a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony at the White House and speaking with senior administration officials, he will deliver an address at the Brookings Institute and participate in another candle lighting ceremony with Ambassadors to the United Nations.

Rivlin already is changing the image of Israel as seen by foreign dignitaries. He has visited Hebron, expressed the close links between the Jewish People and Judea and Samaria and has veered 180 degrees from Peres’ sermonizing on the “peace process” at every opportunity.

The president said before boarding the plane this morning:

The friendship between Israel and the United States is an expression of a deep bond. It is the bond between two countries, and between two peoples, and I intend to express to the President, in the name of all the people, Israel’s appreciation for the uncompromising support of the United States, in each moment, and in every situation.

These are days of great regional instability, and a far from simple security situation in Israel. It is my intention to discuss these challenges with President Obama, alongside the ongoing discussion about the common values which we share – values of freedom and democracy – and I am in no doubt that the array of meetings planned during this visit will serve to further strengthen and deepen the relations between our peoples.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed his sorrow Thursday morning on the passing of former U.S. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.

He said in a statement:

I had the opportunity to work closely with Sandy in the 1990s, when he served as National Security Adviser to President Clinton.

I was always impressed with his intelligence and keen understanding of global issues. I extend my deepest condolences to his family.

Netanyahu has check-mated Obama.

The Prime Minister and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met on Tuesday, two weeks after Israel reportedly told the Secretary of State that more “good will measures” for Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority must parallel good will to Israel by giving the green light for building homes in settlement blocs.

The Obama administration obviously was far from happy with the Israeli demand, according to this morning’s report by Haaretz, which directly quoted a government spokesman as saying:

The Americans want Israel to implement a package of meaningful measures in the West Bank. The prime minister made it clear that we want American recognition of the settlement blocs and of the fact that we can build there.

The office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has not denied the report, and it makes perfect sense. Abbas has figuratively shot himself in the head by not dampening incitement to kill Jews. He also not only has not condemned murders of Israel, his regime also has continued to praise the “martyrs.”

Netanyahu, the master of timing, has exploited the impossible situation in which Abbas has placed himself by promoting lies that are too ridiculous even for President Barack Obama and most of the international community to buy.

The Palestinian Authority recently has accused Israelis of “executing” terrorists who they claims were innocent people, has charged that soldiers and “settlers” plant knives next to terrorists who were shot dead, and has tried to create a change in the definition of the “Temple Mount status quo” to mean no Jews are allowed even to visit, let alone pray.

The inevitable change in the image of Abbas, along with this past week’s blood-letting by Palestinian Authority terrorists, left Kerry in the unusual position of not demanding “both sides” stop the violence when he met Prime Minister Netanyahu Tuesday.

The Prime Minister’s remarks released for publication were:

Good morning, John. I’d like to welcome you again to Jerusalem. You are a friend in our common effort to restore stability, security and peace. There can be no peace when we have an onslaught of terror – not here or not anywhere else in the world, which is experiencing this same assault by militant Islamists and the forces of terror. Israel is fighting these forces every hour.

Kerry was incredibly bland, limiting his comments to his concern about the attacks, although he did not specifically use the terms “Arabs,” whether from Jerusalem or from the Palestinian Authority. The usual “balance” was absent. Kerry did not even hint that Israel has to show “proportional response” and did not utter a sound about Israeli settlements being an obstacle to peace.

He didn’t even use the word “occupation.”

Kerry stated, for public consumption, at least:

I come at a time that, as the Prime Minister has just said, is very troubled. Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence, with attacks in the streets, with knives or scissors or cars. And it is very clear to us that the terrorism, these acts of terrorism which have been taking place, deserve the condemnation that they are receiving and today I expressed my complete condemnation for any act of terror that takes innocent lives and disrupts the day-to-day life of a nation.

Israel has every right in the world to defend itself. It has an obligation to defend itself…. So I’m here today to talk with the Prime Minister about the ways that we can work together, all of us – the international community – to push back against terrorism, to push back against senseless violence and to find a way forward, to restore calm and to begin to provide the opportunities that most reasonable people in every part of the world are seeking for themselves and for their families.

He added that the Islamic State (ISIS) state also is one the agenda of his discussion with Prime Minister Netanyahu.

U.S. Vice President has rolled out a red carpet with nails for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House this week.

He told 5,000 Reform Jews in Florida Saturday night that no one loves Israel more than he does but threw in a warning that referred to the Prime Minister’s choice for media adviser, who earlier this year posted on Facebook a remark that equated President Barack Obama with anti-Semitism.

Dr. Ron Baratz, slated to be his media guru if the Cabinet agrees, has been exposed in the media for Facebook posts that insulted not only President Obama but also President Reuven Rivlin and the revered Shas party founder and leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to the White House with his hands out for an increase in American military aid, but the timing of the storm over Baratz may keep Obama’s hands in his pockets until Netanyahu gives in and looks for someone else besides Baratz.

Biden said in his speech Saturday night:

There’s nobody in American policy today, not one single person, who I will take second place to in my affection and defense of Israel.

Biden also took the opportunity to make it clear that Baratz’s Facebook post was not tolerable. Baratz wrote earlier this year that President Obama’s reaction earlier this spring, after Netanyahu announced he would speak to Congress against the nuclear deal with Obama, was “modern anti-Semitism.”

Biden said:

There is no excuse. There should be no tolerance for any member or employee of the Israeli administration referring to the president of the United States in derogatory terms.

Period. Period. Period. Period.

That is a whole lot of periods, which reflect both Biden and Obama’s disgust with their inability to force Netanyahu to let the United States tell him what is good for Israel, especially when it comes to Palestinian Authority and Iranian terror.

Biden spent a good part of his speech praising the Reform Jewish movement for being “early proponents of civil rights and gay equality.” He noted that the Reform movement “just this week adopted a broad transgender rights policy” and declared:

For decades, you’ve been the heart and soul of opportunity for all Americans. Where you lead, the nation eventually follows.

Netanyahu is leaving for the United States on Sunday and will speak to a progressive liberal Jewish group in an effort to schmooze the majority of American Jews who profess love for Israel but consider Zionism as buying Israeli bonds or perhaps visiting the Jewish Home once in a while and sneaking a Torah scroll into the women’s section of the Western Wall.

They generally adopt the mantra of “two states for two peoples.”

The Prime Minister said at the Cabinet meeting Sunday:

My conversation with the president will center on recent events in the Middle East, including in Syria, possible progress with the Palestinians, or at least stabilizing the situation with them, and, of course, strengthening the security of the State of Israel, which the US has always been committed to, while maintaining the State of Israel’s comparative advantage in the face of a changing Middle East and a cycle that changes less.

I believe that this meeting is important in order to clarify the continuation of American aid to Israel in the coming decade.

Haaretz reported that Netanyahu will come to Obama with “good will” measures for the Palestinian Authority, something that the Obama administration always demands when Palestinian Authority terrorists go on a rampage or when they are so calm that the State Dept. is sure “peace is around the corner.”

The newspaper said one of the “good will “measures will be allowing freer mobility for Palestinian Authority Arabs to travel.

A Jerusalem municipal committee has temporarily frozen all building construction permits in eastern Jerusalem, not only for Jews but also for Arabs, Army Radio reported Monday afternoon.

The office of the Prime Minister insists that it had nothing to do with the Jerusalem City Building and Planning Committee’s decision to freeze construction.

The halt in construction comes just before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is to visit President Barack Obama to try to mend fences. It also comes shortly after the Obama administration denounced a near-final bureaucratic advancement in plans for building 900 new residential units in the Hareidi Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, adjacent to the Arab Shuafat area.

A source in the municipality said the decision to freeze all building construction permits was made so there will be no question of discrimination.

The freeze puts Washington in a bit of a bind.  

It frequently has opposed building for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, a tacit approval of discrimination in favor of Arabs. This time, any criticism from the White House or the State Dept. would have to explicitly state that its policy discriminates in favors of Arabs.

Eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem, unlike Judea and Samaria, are not ruled by the military and instead have full legal status as any other city in Israel. The  United States and virtually the rest of the world continue to define half the capital as “occupied,” even though more than 250,000 Jews live in areas that were restored to Israel in the Six-Dar in 1967, including the Kotel.

The decision was made during a discussion on the approval of the units for the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood. The same apartments were approved in an earlier bureaucratic five years ago on the same day Vice President Joe Biden step foot in Israel for a visit.

The timing infuriated Biden, and the project has caused consternation in Washington every time another step is approved.