US should cut funding to UN until reversal of vote, says Ted Cruz

Texas Senator Ted Cruz called on the US to stymie funding to the United Nations until Friday’s vote at the Security Council to end Israeli settlement building is reversed.

The Republican politician took to Twitter, saying he had spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send him Hanukka greetings along with the assurance of “strong support in Congress.”

“No US $ for UN until reversed,” Cruz wrote in the post.

Cruz’s remarks came as an apparent endorsement of South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s plan to campaign for a bipartisan consensus in Congress that would punish those who pushed for the resolution with a cut in US aid – as well as the UN itself, which relies on generous congressional appropriations.

Already, Senators Marco Rubio of Florida, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and James Lankford of Oklahoma signaled support for Graham’s initiative, which an Obama administration official said on Friday would only harm US interests if pursued.

“I anticipate this vote will create a backlash in Congress against the United Nations,” Graham said. “The organization is increasingly viewed as antisemitic and seems to have lost all sense of proportionality. I will do everything in my power, working with the new administration and Congress, to leave no doubt about where America stands when it comes to the peace process and where we stand with the only true democracy in the Middle East.”