Israeli Official Accuses Obama, Kerry of 'Abandoning Israel'

"An Israeli official launched a furious personal attack on President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday, accusing them of nothing less than the 'abandonment of Israel,' for scheming behind Israel's back to push an anti-settlements resolution through the UN Security Council.

Using language unprecedented in its anger and personal nature, even by the standards of two terms of friction-filled ties between the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Obama Administration, the official declared that 'President Obama and Secretary Kerry are behind this shameful move against Israel at the UN.'

Referring to an Egyptian resolution that was introduced late Wednesday and withdrawn by Cairo on Thursday, the official charged that 'the US administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind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 draft resolution refers to East Jerusalem as 'occupied Palestinian territory.')

The official noted that 'President Obama could declare his willingness to veto this resolution in an instant but instead is pushing it. 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 extraordinarily bitter denunciation came shortly after the Security Council scheduled a vote on the same resolution for 3 p.m. local time Friday at UN headquarters in New York (10 p.m. Israel time). The vote was rescheduled following Egypt's decision - after a conversation between President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and President-elect Donald Trump - to withdraw the resolution hours before a vote on Thursday evening. New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela stepped in to revive the resolution.

The unnamed Israeli official's comments Friday followed a series of anonymous Israeli criticisms of the Obama administration over the resolution on Thursday.

The effort to push through the anti-settlements resolution constituted a diplomatic 'hit' by Obama against Netanyahu and the settlement enterprise, a senior source in Jerusalem was quoted by Israeli television as saying on Thursday night..."