US fails to win UN condemnation of Hamas militants in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.S.-sponsored draft resolution that for the first time would have condemned the militant Islamic group Hamas, which controls Gaza, failed to win the required two-thirds majority in the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

Before the vote on the resolution, the 193-member world body had narrowly voted to require a two-thirds majority for approval as sought by Arab nations for rather than the simple majority urged by the United States.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the assembly before the vote that it could make history and unconditionally speak out against Hamas, which she called “one of the most obvious and grotesque cases of terrorism in the world.”

“What the U.N. chooses to do today will speak volumes about each country’s seriousness when it comes to condemning anti-Semitism,” she said. “Because there is nothing more anti-Semitic than saying terrorism is not terrorism when it’s used against the Jewish people and the Jewish state.”

But the vote on the resolution to condemn Hamas was 87 in favor against 57 opposed, with 33 abstentions — a plurality but below the two-thirds requirement to adopt it. The vote to require a two-thirds majority was much closer, 7572, with 26 abstentions and several countries changing their votes to “yes” at the last minute.

In an official statement, Hamas thanked U.N. member states “that stood by our people’s resistance and the justice of their cause” and attacked Haley who it said “is known for her extremism and her positions that support the Zionist terrorism in Palestine.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party is locked in a bitter decade-long split with Hamas, also welcomed the resolution’s defeat saying: “The Palestinian presidency will not allow for the condemnation of the national Palestinian struggle.”

By contrast, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the “large majority” — 87 countries — “that took a stance against Hamas” for the first time, calling it “an important achievement for the United States and Israel.”