Obama Lets Anti-settlement Resolution Pass at UN Security Council

"In a stunning departure from its policy over the last eight years, the Obama administration abstained from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution Friday that demands an immediate halt to all Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, enabling the measure to pass.

Resolution 2334 was approved with 14 member states voting in favor, none voting against and one abstention - the United States. The passage of the resolution was met with applause in the packed chamber.

The text also calls on all states 'to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967' - language that Israel fears will lead to a surge in boycott and sanctions efforts, and that an Israeli official warned would provide 'a tailwind for terror.'

Israeli minister Yuval Steinitz, speaking after the vote, said the US had 'abandoned Israel, its only ally in the Middle East' and said its behavior was not that of a friend.

The Palestinian Authority hailed 'a day of victory.'...

Shortly before the vote, an Israeli official used unprecedentedly harsh language to accuse the Obama administration of scheming with the Palestinians to harm Israel with the resolution.

'The US administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel's back which would be a tailwind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory,' the official said. (The draft resolution refers to East Jerusalem as 'occupied Palestinian territory.')

'This is an abandonment of Israel which breaks decades of US policy of protecting Israel at the UN and undermines the prospects of working with the next administration of advancing peace,' the official added...



Israeli cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi said the US vote also 'spits in the face' of incoming president Donald Trump...

Under Obama, the US in 2011 used its veto power to block a similar measure to the one adopted Friday.

During his address that September at the UN General Assembly, the president stated, 'Peace is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations - if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now.'

As the vote neared Friday, a number of high-profile Democrats issued public statements urging Obama to veto the resolution.

Most notably, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, one of the most prominent Jewish members of Congress and the new Senate minority leader, said he had 'spoken directly to the administration numerous times' and 'in the strongest terms possible' urged them to veto.

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans were also voicing their own indignation.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham threatened to 'form a bipartisan coalition to suspend or significantly reduce United States assistance to the United Nations' if the international body went through with the resolution."