US vetoes Security Council resolution to rescind Trump’s Jerusalem recognition

“On Chanukah, you spoke like a Maccabi. You lit a candle of truth,” Netanyahu said, thanking Haley and Trump for vetoing an anti-Israel UN resolution. 

By: AP and World Israel News

The United States vetoed a UN resolution that would have required President Donald Trump to rescind his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The Egyptian-sponsored Security Council resolution was approved by the 14 other Council members.

“Thank you, Ambassador Haley. On Chanukah, you spoke like a Maccabi. You lit a candle of truth. You dispel the darkness. One defeated the many. Truth defeated lies. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, Nikki Haley,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated.

Arab nations knew in advance that the United States was certain to veto the resolution, but they sought the vote to demonstrate that countries everywhere and even many U.S. allies such as Britain, France and Japan are against Trump’s action.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called the resolution “an insult” that won’t be forgotten, saying the United Nations forced the US to cast a veto simply because of its right to decide where to put its embassy.

Ahead of the vote, Haley said she “will not use Council’s time to address where a sovereign nation might decide to put its embassy, and why we have every right to do so.”

Instead, she referred to anti-Israel Resolution 2334, which condemned the construction of Jewish homes in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and which the Obama administration allowed to pass exactly a year ago.

“In December 2016, the US elected to abstain. Now it is a new administration. Given the chance to vote again we would exercise a veto power,” she stated. “The US will not make that mistake again.”