Update 2:
House votes to rebuke UN on Israeli settlement resolution
The House passed a resolution on Thursday denouncing the Obama administration’s abstention from a critical United Nations Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements.
Lawmakers of both parties supported the measure in a 342-80 vote, with four Democrats voting "present." A majority of Democrats, 109, voted for the resolution; 76 Democrats opposed it. All but four Republicans voted for the resolution.
The Obama administration drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike last month when it declined to veto a U.N. resolution condemning Israel’s expansion of settlements in occupied Palestinian territories as a violation of international law.
“This government, our government, abandoned our ally Israel when she needed us the most,” Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said in an animated House floor speech. “These types of one-sided efforts are designed to isolate and delegitimize Israel. They do not advance peace. They make it more elusive.”
The U.N. measure passed 14-0, with support from countries including the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia. The U.S. had the power to veto the resolution by virtue of its permanent membership in the Security Council, but opted to abstain.
The Obama administration defended its break from the longstanding U.S. policy of shielding its closest Middle Eastern ally by arguing that settlements undermine any potential path to a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Last month’s vote was the first time the Security Council passed a resolution critical of Israel in the conflict with Palestine during Obama’s presidency. The Obama administration has used its veto power in support of Israel in the past. More resolutions opposed by Israel went forward under each of the previous four administrations.
“I think allowing governments to bully Israel in the U.N. is a mistake, no matter who’s in power,” said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who co-sponsored Thursday’s resolution.
Passage of the resolution is likely the beginning of lawmakers’ response to the U.N. action. Some top Republicans, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), have said they want to rescind federal funding for the U.N., though no such legislation has emerged yet.
Thursday’s vote is only the latest example of lawmakers in Congress, particularly Republicans, siding with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over President Obama.
Then-Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) invited Netanyahu to address Congress in 2015 without consultation from the White House, a breach of protocol that angered administration officials and further soured the president’s relationship with the Israeli prime minister. Obama, Vice President Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry all declined to meet with Netanyahu during his visit to Washington.
Several dozen Democrats skipped Netanyahu’s speech, which largely served to warn against negotiating with Iran over its nuclear weapons, out of loyalty to the president.
Later that year, nearly 30 Democrats in both chambers voted against the international accord to curb Iran’s nuclear arsenal amid furious lobbying from pro-Israel advocates.
Update:
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as biased a speech by outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry on Israeli-Palestinian issues.
Mr Kerry said the prospect of a peace deal based on a two-state solution was in grave jeopardy.
Israeli settlement building on occupied land was a major problem, he said.
Mr Netanyahu said he was disappointed with the speech, which he said was "unbalanced" and "obsessively focused" on settlements.
Mr Kerry had "paid lip service to the unremitting Palestinian campaign of terrorism" against Israel, he said.
France, which will host an international conference to lay down the framework for a future peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians in Paris in January, indicated support for Mr Kerry's position.
In his speech, Mr Kerry said that despite Israeli claims to the contrary, UN condemnation of illegal Jewish settlements on occupied land was in line with American values.
"The two-state solution is the only way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. It is the only way to ensure Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state. That future is now in jeopardy," he said.
He added: "The Israeli prime minister publicly supports a two-state solution, but his current coalition is the most right-wing in Israeli history with an agenda driven by the most extreme elements.
"The result is that policies of this government, which the prime minister himself just described as more committed to settlements than any Israel's history, are leading in the opposite direction. They are leading towards one state."
The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said Mr Kerry's speech was "clear, committed and courageous".
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38455753
Original story:
Washington (CNN)The United States on Friday allowed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction to be adopted, defying extraordinary pressure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in alliance with President-elect Donald Trump.
The Security Council approved the resolution with 14 votes, with the US abstaining. There was applause in the chamber following the vote. In the latest and perhaps final chapter in the bitter mistrust between President Barack Obama's White House and the Israeli government, a senior Israeli official had earlier accused the US and the Palestinians of cooking up the "extreme" resolution behind Israel's back.
"President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the UN," a senior Israeli official told CNN.
The Obama administration has grown increasingly frustrated by Israeli settlement construction and it has repeatedly warned it could foreclose the possibility of a two-state solution with the Palestinian people. The admission of an internal debate about the UN resolution illustrated how unhappy the administration is with the Israeli government.
Trump subsequently put out a statement opposing the resolution.
"As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations," Trump said. "This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis."
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/23/politics/israel-official-rips-obama-un-settlements/
