Graham Threatens to Pull Funding for U.N. over Israeli Settlement Vote

"Sen. Lindsey Graham warned Saturday that he will propose a bill in Congress to pull U.S. funding for the United Nations unless the U.N. Security Council repeals its just-passed resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal.

The resolution, a major rebuke to Israel, passed Friday in a 14-0 vote. The U.S., which has vetoed similar resolutions in the past, abstained, allowing it to be adopted...

The Republican senator from South Carolina told CNN on Saturday that he had been planning to work with the U.N. to create a Marshall Plan to support countries emerging from conflict but won't do it unless the council overturns the resolution.

'I am a huge supporter of foreign aid and the U.N.,' he said. 'I want to do more, not less. But I can't support funding a body that singles out the only democracy in the Middle East who shares our values.'...

Graham told CNN that trying to defund the U.N. is a new approach.

'This is a road we haven't gone down before,' said Graham, a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee. 'If you can't show the American people that international organizations can be more responsible, there is going to be a break. And I am going to lead that break.'

In a statement Friday following the vote, Graham said President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry went from 'naïve and foolish to flat-out reckless' in allowing the resolution to be adopted...

Graham, in his statement, said the U.S. diplomatic move amounted to abandoning Israel and that he expects it will 'create a backlash' against the U.N. in Congress.

'The organization is increasingly viewed as anti-Semitic and seems to have lost all sense of proportionality,' he said..."