BAM BETRAYS ISRAEL
US l ts UN cond mn our ally
The UN Securityy Council condemned Israel for West Bank settlements Fridayiday after President Obama abandoned andoned our ally and abstained.ned. For decades, the US hasas vetoed measures to protee cc tt I s ra e l from such resolutions.ns.
President Obama stabbed Israel in the back Friday by refusing to block a contentious UN Security Council resolution that demands the Jewish state cease all development in occupied territories.
Instead, the hostile measure passed with US Ambassador Samantha Power abstaining.
The resolution was first introduced by Egypt in cooperation with the Palestinians to consider settlement building in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank “a flagrant violation under international law.”
Fourteen of the 15 other members of the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution. Its approval was met with sustained applause in the chamber.
A “no” vote by the US or any of the other four permanent members of the council — Russia, China, France or Great Britain — would have killed it.
The US vetoed a similar resolution in 2011.
The White House said on Friday that Obama made the final decision.
“Our position is that there is one president at a time,” said Ben Rhodes, the White House national security adviser. “President Obama is the president until Jan. 20, and we are taking this action of course as US policy.”
He added that the administration is “certain” President-elect Donald Trump will take a different tack when he becomes commander in chief in January.
Moments after the vote, Trump, who on Thursday sided with Israel by opposing the resolution, vowed that US policies regarding the Middle East would soon change.
“As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th,” Trump tweeted.
A vote had initially been planned on the resolution for Thursday, but Egypt backed off under pressure from Israel and a phone call from Trump.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hearing that the White House may either abstain from the vote or would not veto the measure, began a flurry of diplomatic maneuvers and reached out to Trump to enlist his support, sources said.
On Thursday, Trump tweeted, “The resolution being considered at the United Na-
tions Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed.”
After Egypt backed out to give Trump a chance to weigh in as president, four other members of the Security Council — New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal — went ahead and reintroduced it.
The White House defended its position on Friday.
Addressing the council afterward, Power said the “Security Council reaffirmed its established consensus that settlements have no legal validity.”
“The United States has been sending the message that the settlements must stop — privately and publicly — for nearly five decades,” she continued. “So our vote today is fully in line with the bipartisan history of how American presidents have approached both the issue — and the role of this body.”
She also said the settlements have gotten so far out of control that they are endangering the two-state solution.
“One has to make a choice between settlements and separation,” Power said.
But incoming Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer slammed for letting Israel twist in the wind.
“Whatever one’s views are on settlements, the UN is the wrong forum to settle these issues. The UN has been a fervently anti-Israel body since the days of ‘Zionism is racism,’ and, unfortunately, that fervor has never diminished,” the New York senator said in a statement.
“Knowing this, past administrations — both Democratic and Republican — have protected Israel from the vagaries of this biased institution.” Netanyahu also blasted the vote. “Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms,” he said.
The Palestinian Authority called the anti-Israel action a “a day of victory.”
An Israeli official on Friday suggested that the Obama administration helped orchestrate the resolution.