The White House added that the legislation is ‘a misguided reaction to a deliberate distortion of the administration’s approach to Israel.’

By JNS

The Office of Management and Budget, which is part of the White House, stated on Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden would veto H.R. 8369, the Israel Security Assistance Support Act, if it came across his desk.

The bill, which is scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday and which has a companion Senate version as of today, condemns the Biden administration’s decision to pause an arms shipment to Israel and would withhold funds from the Pentagon and U.S. State Department unless that and future shipments are approved.

The White House “strongly opposes” the bill, “which seeks to limit the president’s discretion to ensure that the delivery of certain defense articles and services aligns with U.S. foreign policy objectives,” it stated.

“The bill would undermine the president’s ability to execute an effective foreign policy,” the White House added. “This bill could raise serious concerns about infringement on the president’s authorities under Article II of the Constitution, including his duties as commander-in-chief and chief executive and his power to conduct foreign relations.”

The White House added that the legislation is “a misguided reaction to a deliberate distortion of the administration’s approach to Israel.”

“The president has been clear: We will always ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself,” the White House stated. “Our commitment to Israel is ironclad.”

It added that the bill “could lead to spiraling unintended consequences, prohibiting the United States from adjusting our security assistance posture with respect to Israel in any way, including to address unanticipated emergent needs, even if Israel and the United States agree that military needs have changed and supplies should change accordingly.”

In recent days, both Republicans and some Democrats, and major U.S. Jewish organizations have criticized the White House and the president, after the administration withheld a shipment of arms to the Jewish state, and Biden threatened Israel that he would withhold more weapons if it went into Rafah.

The Republican Jewish Coalition called the new White House statement “indefensible.”

“Biden is threatening to veto the congressional bill that would require him to send promised aid to Israel,” wrote Michael Freund, founder and chairman of the Jerusalem nonprofit Shavei Israel. “That ‘ironclad’ commitment of his to Israel’s security continues to gather rust.”

Meghan McCain, a commentator and the daughter of the late Arizona senator and presidential candidate John McCain, shared the White House announcement on social media and quoted former Obama administration defense secretary Robert Gates in 2014: “Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

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The United Kingdom and Switzerland abstained on the Algeria-drafted resolution.

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS

As expected, the United States vetoed the Palestinian bid for full U.N. membership during a vote at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday afternoon.

Of the 15 members of the council, 12 voted for a Palestinian state, including Japan, South Korea, France and Slovenia which don’t currently recognize a Palestinian state. The United Kingdom and Switzerland abstained on the Algeria-drafted resolution.

As one of the five permanent members of the council, Washington has veto power.

Washington has “long been clear that premature actions here in New York, even with the best intentions, will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people,” Robert Wood, deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council on Thursday.

Wood cited the failure of the council’s committee on new members to reach a consensus on the issue. He also questioned whether the Palestinians meet the basic criteria for U.N. statehood—questions that prevented the committee from reaching consensus on the original application for full Palestinian U.N. membership in 2011.

“We have long called on the Palestinian Authority to undertake necessary reforms to help establish the attributes of readiness for statehood and note that Hamas—a terrorist organization—is currently exerting power and influence in Gaza, an integral part of the state envisioned in this resolution,” Wood said.

The Palestinians became the first membership applicant to be turned away by a council vote since Vietnam when the United States voted against its membership in 1976 before relenting the next year.

By U.S. law, full membership for Ramallah at the United Nations outside a political settlement with Israel would automatically terminate U.S. funding for the United Nations.

“For Washington, they do not deserve to have their own state,” Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s U.N. envoy, said of the Palestinians. “They are only a barrier on the path towards realizing the interests of Israel.”

Barbara Woodward, the United Kingdom’s representative to the United Nations, explained London’s abstention.

“We must keep our focus on securing an immediate pause in order to get aid in and hostages out, then making progress towards a sustainable ceasefire without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life,” she said.

Woodward also described Hamas’s control of Gaza and its holding of hostages as antithetical to the recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Multiple media outlets reported that the Biden administration had been applying pressure on other countries to vote no to avoid being isolated.

Gilad Erdan, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, rebuked the Security Council for even entertaining a Palestinian member state.

“The child-murdering Hamas rapists are watching this meeting and they are smiling,” Erdan said at a council meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian file ahead of the vote.

“There is no bigger prize for terror for today’s meeting,” Erdan said.

Erdan also criticized the Security Council for welcoming Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian foreign minister, to the ministerial-level session, which drew high-ranking diplomats from around the world.

Amir-Abdollahian was granted a U.S. visa under Washington’s responsibilities as the U.N.’s host country, despite criticism that Iran’s top diplomat is a security risk. His arrival also came just days after Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, which a coalition of Western and Arab partners repelled.

“He is here to make a mockery of you,” Erdan said of the Iranian official. “He is here to show you all, in your nice suits and with your diplomatic niceties, that his country can launch an attack on another member state on a Saturday, and then he can come here on Thursday to lecture you all on human rights and international law.”

Amir-Abdollahian threatened before the council that any retaliation for Tehran’s attack would lead to “a decisive and proper response” to make Israel “regret its actions.”

“This is an unchangeable decision,” he said.

On Friday morning local time, Israel reportedly attacked Iran. The Jewish state had not confirmed the attack at press time.

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Biden administration refuses to veto Security Council resolution demanding immediate Gaza ceasefire, ignoring Netanyahu’s ultimatum.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution Monday demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Hamas terror organization, after the United States delegation declined to veto the measure.

The resolution, which was drafted jointly by the delegations from Sierra Leone, Switzerland, Slovenia, South Korea, Malta, Japan, Mozambique, Ecuador, Algeria, and Guyana, passed the Security Council 14-0, with only the U.S. abstaining.

The measure “demands an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a permanent sustainable ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip.

Separately, the resolution “also demands the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs, and further demands that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”

Israel had objected to the resolution, saying that it did not condition the ceasefire on the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

Shortly before the vote, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called on the U.S. mission to the UN to use its veto to block the resolution, threatening to withdraw an Israeli delegation to Washington if the measure was allowed to pass.

‘’If the USA does not veto the resolution, which calls for a ceasefire that is not dependent on the release of the hostages, I will cancel the Israeli delegation’s trip to Washington,’’ Netanyahu said.

The Israeli delegation had been slated to discuss alternatives to the planned Rafah operation.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield disputed Israel’s interpretation of Monday’s resolution, claiming that a ceasefire in Gaza must be part of an agreement securing the release of Israeli hostages.

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The US cited the lack of condemnation of Hamas and the disconnection of a ceasefire to the release of the hostages for its abstention.

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The latest resolution was drafted by Algeria, a virulently anti-Israel country.

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS

Despite never-ending media reports of boiling tensions between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government over the Israel-Hamas war, Washington has signaled its intent to veto another United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire.

Guyana, serving as the council’s president for February, has confirmed a vote is on the docket for Tuesday morning.

But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said in a statement on Saturday night that, “Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted,” indicating Washington will use its veto power as one of the 15-country council’s five permanent members.

The latest resolution was drafted by Algeria, a virulently anti-Israel country that serves as the council’s de facto representative for the Arab and Muslim world. Algerian diplomats have said action is needed to thwart an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, according to the Israel Defense Forces Hamas’s last stronghold in the Strip.

Algeria’s latest draft demands an immediate ceasefire, which all parties must respect, and immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. It further calls upon all parties to “comply with their obligation under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”

The draft resolution also insists upon a rapid, safe scale-up of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the formation of a Palestinian state, among other provisions.

While council members France, Japan, Korea and Switzerland have reiterated their belief that the resolution needs to condemn the Hamas massacre, which has been a consistent demand of the United States, the draft includes no such condemnation.

Algerian diplomats said last week that a cycle of rejections of the terms of a humanitarian ceasefire by the warring parties puts to bed Washington’s diplomacy-first efforts, necessitating, the anti-Israel country said, action from the council.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Washington’s U.N. envoy, claimed the resolution could “run counter” to the goals the White House says can still be reached through diplomacy in ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas through intermediaries, including Qatar, Egypt and France.

Those talks appeared to hit a major bump last week, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu labeled Hamas’s demands as “delusional.” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Saturday that, “The pattern in the last few days is not really very promising but…we will always remain optimistic and will always remain pushing.”

The United States has used or threatened to utilize its veto power several times since Israel’s ground operation in Gaza began on Oct. 27. Most recently, Washington vetoed a ceasefire resolution presented by the United Arab Emirates in early December.

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The Algeria-backed call as it stands would jeopardize a potential hostage deal and is therefore unacceptable, said the American ambassador.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The United States is set to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, the American ambassador to the international body said Saturday.

As a temporary member of the UNSC, Algeria had wanted to introduce the call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and unimpeded humanitarian aid already some two weeks ago. It had backed off after Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said it could put a potential hostage deal at risk, but with the support of the Arab countries in the UN, it is now thinking to bring it to the Council on Tuesday.

The U.S. is still against the move, Thomas-Greenfield said in a statement, because it could scuttle the hostage deal that the White House has been working hard on, which could also answer the needs of the resolution.

“Over the last week, President Biden has had multiple calls with [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, to push this deal forward. Though gaps remain, the key elements are on the table,” she said.

“We believe this deal represents the best opportunity to reunite all hostages with their families and enable a prolonged pause in fighting, that would allow for more lifesaving food, water, fuel, medicine, and other essentials to get into the hands of Palestinian civilians who desperately need it,” the envoy continued.

“The resolution put forward in the Security Council, in contrast, would not achieve these outcomes, and indeed, may run counter to them … For that reason, the United States does not support action on this draft resolution. Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted,” Thomas-Greenfield added. “It is critical that other parties give this process the best odds of succeeding, rather than push measures that put it — and the opportunity for an enduring resolution of hostilities — in jeopardy.”

She urged instead for the UNSC to put more pressure on Hamas “to accept the proposal on the table” that the terror organization had rejected.

Hamas had come back with a counter-proposal whose terms included a guaranteed end to the war and complete IDF withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, along with the release of 500 hardened terrorists it could choose in addition to many others Israel would pick to free. Israel has vetoed such a deal, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “delusional,” and one that no sane country would accept.

Hamas has since suspended the hostage and ceasefire negotiations.

For a resolution to pass in the Security Council, nine of 15 members have to vote for it, and none of those with veto rights can wield their vote against it. The U.S., Russia, China, Great Britain and France have veto rights.

So far, the U.S. has vetoed two other UNSC resolutions on the Israel-Hamas war, protecting Israel’s right to defend itself from the terrorist organization that sparked the conflict on October 7, 2023 when some 3,000 armed men invaded Gazan envelope communities, massacred 1,200 people including infants and the elderly, and took 253 hostages.

Of these, 103 are believed to still be alive in Gaza, with 32 others having died or been murdered in captivity. Three have been rescued, and 109 women and children were freed in a week-long exchange for Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian aid at the end of November.

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Thirteen members of the 15-strong UNSC voted in favor of the resolution while Britain abstained.

By JNS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night praised the United States’s veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

“I greatly appreciate the correct stance that the U.S. has taken in the U.N. Security Council,” said Netanyahu.

“The other countries need to understand that, on the one hand, it is impossible to support the elimination of Hamas while on the other hand calling for a halt to the war, which will prevent the elimination of Hamas,” he added.

“Therefore, Israel will continue our just war to eliminate Hamas and achieve the other goals of the war that we have set,” said the premier.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood criticized the council after the vote as the resolution did not condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel or the kidnapping of some 240 hostages by the terror group. It also did not acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defense.

Wood said the resolution was “divorced from reality” and would have “only plant[ed] the seeds for the next war.”

Thirteen members of the 15-strong UNSC voted in favor of the resolution while Britain abstained.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan expressed his appreciation to the Biden administration for “standing firmly by our side and showing its leadership and values.

“It is shocking that while Hamas is firing rockets at Israel from population centers in southern Gaza, the U.N. is busy debating a distorted resolution that will enable Hamas terrorists to stay in power and does not condemn them…. A ceasefire will be possible only with the return of all the hostages and the destruction of Hamas,” added Erdan.

The Security Council convened the emergency meeting to hear from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who last week invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, which allows the head of the international body to bring to the council’s attention issues that he perceives as a threat to international security.

Guterres warned on Friday of a “humanitarian catastrophe” and “a complete breakdown of public order ” in Gaza and urged the council to demand a truce.

Gaza is at “a breaking point,” he said, adding that Hamas’s Oct. 7 slaughter “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”

In late October, Guterres told the Security Council that “it is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum,” adding that “the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.”

He went on to say that “they have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced; and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Cohen slammed Guterres in his own address to the Security Council: “Mr. Secretary-General, in what world do you live? Definitely, this is not our world.”

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