Other resolutions that the first Bush administration allowed to pass criticized Israel’s deportation of Palestinians and its kidnapping of a Lebanese religious leader.

The number of such resolutions fell to just three during Bill Clinton’s presidency, which was characterized by promising Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, and then rose to six under George W. Bush, whose term in office saw increased violence with the outbreak of the second intifada. In May 2004, one such resolution, also deemed “one-sided” by Israel, condemned Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza. Another, in March 2002, called for a cease-fire and a withdrawal by Israeli forces from Palestinian cities they had re-entered to stem the uprising; Israel protested that the resolution lacked “a similar call for an end to terrorism in all its forms and in particular suicide bombings.”

President Obama, in contrast with his predecessors, has completely shielded Israel from such resolutions. This fact is all the more striking given that his presidency has overlapped with governments that have been among the most right-wing in Israel’s history — governments that have continually and openly defied American-led peace efforts and American policy opposing settlement expansion.

The rationale behind Mr. Obama’s United Nations policy was hinted at in 2011, when the United States vetoed a draft resolution related to Israeli settlements. In remarks explaining her vote, Susan E. Rice, then the United States ambassador to the United Nations, made clear that the administration objected to the resolution not over its substance, but over concerns that it could poison efforts to foster peace negotiations. In other words, the administration hoped that vetoing the resolution would encourage the Netanyahu government to engage more constructively in peace efforts.

But that didn’t happen. Mr. Netanyahu’s policies, words and actions — especially continued settlement expansion and new land confiscations — proved that Mr. Obama’s tactic had been ineffective, perhaps even counterproductive.

Supporters of an Israeli-Palestinian peace, however, have reason to hope that Mr. Obama, having achieved nothing by shielding Israel, is now ready to embrace constructive Security Council action related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The two-state solution is the only path to preserving Israel’s security and its character as a Jewish state and a democracy, while delivering freedom, dignity and sovereignty to the Palestinians. We can hope that President Obama may now recognize that preserving this solution for the future is the most important legacy he can leave in this arena. But to accomplish that, he must be willing to resist, rather than court, the anti-peace bullies in Israel and the United States; he must be willing to stand up for American interests in obtaining a Middle East peace, and to stand with America’s allies in the Security Council in supporting a two-state solution.

If he does that, President Obama will not be betraying Israel. He will be Israel’s true friend. And he will walk in the footsteps of all eight other presidents since 1967, Democrat and Republican alike.