[Thursday] night, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to condemn the biased, anti-Israel resolution approved by the United Nations Security Council on the eve of Christmas and Chanukah.

The UN resolution declared half of Jerusalem, as well as Judea and Samaria, to be “occupied territories” where Jews can’t live. It passed because the Obama administration abandoned the long-held U.S. position of vetoing such blatantly biased resolutions.

More than 100 House Democrats joined 233 Republicans for a 342-to-80 vote. While the House resolution doesn’t have the force of law, it is, nevertheless, a stinging rebuke of Barack Obama’s hostility toward our ally Israel.

On the House floor [Thursday] night, Speaker Paul Ryan expressed his outrage at Obama’s failure to stand with Israel:

“I am still stunned by what happened last month. This government — our government — abandoned our ally Israel when she needed us the most… This UN Security Council resolution was not about settlements, and it certainly was not about peace. It was about one thing and one thing only: Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state. These types of one-sided efforts are designed to isolate and delegitimize Israel. They don’t advance peace…

"It’s time to repair the damage done by this misguided hit job at the UN. It’s time to rebuild our partnership with Israel and reaffirm our commitment to her security. And it’s time to show all of our allies that, regardless of the shameful events of last month, the United States remains a force for good.”

Speaking Of Paul Ryan…

Speaker Ryan also announced [Thursday] that a measure to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, will be included in the legislative effort to repeal Obamacare.

As you may know, Republicans have already started the process of using what is known as “reconciliation” to repeal Obamacare. Reconciliation bills, which are limited to revenue and spending issues, are not subject to the filibuster in the Senate. That means Republicans can pass them with just 51 votes.

This is the same process Democrats used to pass Obamacare without any Republican votes. And this is the process Republicans are preparing to use to repeal Obamacare.

Speaker Ryan’s commitment to defunding Planned Parenthood is good news, especially given the recent report from a special House committee that has been investigating Planned Parenthood’s profiteering from the sale of aborted baby parts.

The committee, led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), issued more than a dozen referrals to state and federal agencies for possible criminal and regulatory violations by Planned Parenthood and the companies it employed.

When the nation is running such massive deficits, federal spending must be brought under control. And when it comes to potential spending cuts, Planned Parenthood should be at the top of the list.

Intelligence Wars

For the past week, President-elect Donald Trump has been repeatedly attacked for allegedly disrespecting and insulting our intelligence community. This controversy stems from ongoing efforts to delegitimize his victory with claims that Russian hacking influenced the election.

Trump understandably rejects those claims and has suggested that the intelligence was politically manipulated. Many in the media are insinuating that Trump is needlessly bashing the professionals in the FBI and CIA.

That’s odd. It wasn’t that long ago when the left-wing media and Democrats were in a full-throated war against the FBI. Here are a few headlines to refresh your memory:

• “FBI Director James Comey May Be a Crook, Says Democratic Leader”

• “Democrats And Hillary Supporters Vent Fury At Comey”

• “Liberals Bash FBI Director Comey Over Clinton Probe”

Weeks after the election, our top intelligence officials finally sat down with Mr. Trump Friday to explain to him, face-to-face, all the details and information the rest of us cannot see. Incredibly, however, NBC and The Washington Post got the top secret intelligence briefing before the president-elect did. Someone leaked it to the media.

Trump tweeted in response, “How did NBC get an exclusive look into the top secret report he (Obama) was presented? Who gave them this report and why? Politics!”

This administration has politicized the IRS, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. And this is not the first time it has been accused of manipulating and politicizing intelligence. Several whistleblowers accused the administration of cooking intelligence reports on ISIS.

Meanwhile, there were hearings [Thursday] on Capitol Hill about the alleged Russian efforts. Two important points came out yet they got virtually no attention. Here’s what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said during an exchange with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain:

“[The Russians] did not change any vote tallies or anything of that sort… And we had no way of gauging the impact that — certainly, the intelligence community can’t gauge the impact that it had on the choices that the electorate made.”

By the way, we are just now learning that for all the hype about Russian hacking, the Democratic National Committee refused to allow the FBI to inspect its computers. In fact, it was reported that “[n]o U.S. government entity has run an independent forensic analysis on the system.”

Now that seems really odd. Why wouldn’t the DNC want government agents looking through their computers? Perhaps the Democrats were afraid of what the feds might find.