U.S. Diplomat Accuses U.N. of Bias Against Israel

"The Trump administration is strongly condemning what it calls a systemic anti-Israel bias at the United Nations, arguing Friday that U.N. monitoring of West Bank settlement activity allowed by the Obama administration is the latest example.

Michele Sison, the No. 2 U.S. diplomat at the United Nations, spoke against what the United States says is the unfair singling out of Israel during a closed session of the U.N. Security Council on Friday. There and elsewhere, the Trump administration is arguing that the United Nations has allowed valuable time and attention to be hijacked for bashing Israel.

Sison spoke during the session to hear the first U.N. report issued under a resolution condemning settlements that the Obama administration allowed to take effect in December. In a pointed and highly unusual critique of Israeli actions, the United States had abstained, allowing the resolution to pass, instead of vetoing it as U.S. envoys have done in the past...

'There can be no moral equivalency between the building of homes and murderous terrorism,' Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said Friday. 'The only impediment to peace is Palestinian violence and incitement. This obsessive focus on Israel must end.'...

The Trump administration strongly disagrees with the December resolution and the Obama administration's rebuke but cannot quickly undo the U.N. action. Instead, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley and other U.S. officials are taking every opportunity to point out what they say is institutional mistreatment of Israel at the United Nations and its member bodies, and the United States is expected to use its presidency of the U.N. Security Council next month as a megaphone..."