Tel Aviv rejects ‘shameful & absurd anti-Israel’ UN resolution

Netanyahu calls in United States envoy in fallout over UN vote was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on December 26, 2016 and was last updated on December 26, 2016.

“President al-Sisi called, Prime Minister Netanyahu called”.

An Israeli spokesman gave no details of when Netanyahu would meet US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro.

The anti-settlement resolution drafted by Egypt was passed this evening by the UN Security Council with 14 votes in favor and an abstention by Washington.

The Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

“I instructed the Foreign Ministry to complete within a month a new evaluation of all our relations with the UN, including the Israeli funding of UN institutions and the presence of UN representatives in Israel”, Benjamin Netanyahu said. “Netanyahu, by his statements and his actions, is isolating Israel for the sake of settlements”. “The reality is there is not a single country in the world that supports Israeli settlements”.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, expressed his disappointment at the vote: “It was to be expected that Israel’s greatest ally would act in accordance with the values that we share, and that they would have vetoed this disgraceful resolution”.

The reprimand on Christmas Day is unusual and a sign of the seriousness with which Israel is taking the matter.

Mr Netanyahu accused US President Barack Obama of carrying out a “shameful ambush” and going back on a 2011 commitment to protect Israel in that very chamber.

“The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed”, Trump said in a Facebook post published Thursday.

America also gives more than $3bn (£2.4bn) a year in defence aid to Israel but, under the Obama administration, it has become frustrated with continued settlement building in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied for almost 50 years.

“The big loss yesterday for Israel in the United Nations will make it much harder to negotiate peace.Too bad, but we will get it done anyway!”

The resolution, which could have been vetoed by the USA, declared Israeli settlements illegal under worldwide law and demanded that the country cease construction in the West Bank and other territories captured in the 1967 Middle East war. It demands a halt to “all Israeli settlement activities”, saying this “is essential for salvaging the two-state solution”. Israel disagrees, citing biblical and historical connections to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as security interests.