Netanyahu expressed certainty that the Obama Administration played an important role in the passage of a ‘shameful, distorted’ UN Security Council resolution on Friday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the Obama Administration for assuming a major role in the passing of a UN Security Council resolution this past Friday that declares all Jewish communities in territories won by Israel from Jordan during the Six-Day War to be illegal.
“From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,” Netanyahu said at his weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“This is, of course, in complete contradiction of the traditional American policy that was committed to not trying to dictate terms for a permanent agreement, like any issue related to them in the Security Council, and, of course, the explicit commitment of President Obama himself, in 2011, to refrain from such steps.”
The Obama Administration vetoed a very similar resolution in February 2011, which condemned all Israeli communities in areas won from Jordan during the Six-Day War. Obama’s UN ambassador at the time, Susan Rice, warned that such a resolution “could encourage the parties to stay out of negotiations and, if and when they did resume, to return to the Security Council whenever they reach an impasse.”
Obama’s current ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, attempted to draw sufficient distinction between the resolution that passed on Friday with that in February of 2011.
“Unlike in 2011, this resolution condemns violence, terrorism and incitement, which also poses an extremely grave risk to the two-state solution,” Power said on Friday shortly after the vote. “We would not have let this resolution pass had it not also addressed counterproductive actions by Palestinians.”
“Over decades, American administrations and Israeli governments have disagreed about settlements, but we agreed that the Security Council was not the place to resolve this issue,” Netanyahu said during Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting. “And, as I told [US Secretary of State] John Kerry on Thursday, friends don’t take friends to the Security Council.”
Netanyahu also took the opportunity to express gratitude for the bipartisan condemnation against the Obama Administration’s decision to allow the UN Security Council resolution to pass.
“I’m encouraged by the statements of our friends in the United States, Republicans and Democrats alike,” said Netanyahu. “They understand how reckless and destructive this UN resolution was, they understand that the Western Wall isn’t occupied territory.”
The Western Wall, along with the rest of the Old City, including the Jewish quarter, belong in portions of Jerusalem that were won by Israel from Jordan in 1967. The resolution therefore, condemns any Israeli presence there as well to be illegal.
By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News