Historic resolution calls on Israel to cease settlements — UN Security Council

US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, explained that since 2011 when the USA used its veto to kill a similar resolution, “circumstances have change dramatically” and that the Jewish settlements “put a two-state solution [with the Palestinian Authority] at risk”.

Power also said that in addition to condemning settlements, the resolution “reflects the facts on the ground” and addresses “counter-productive actions by the Palestinians”.

The resolution was passed after the United States refused to veto it, breaking with long-standing American practice.

Roughly 500,000 Israeli settlers now live on more than 100 Jewish-only settlements built in the West Bank since Israel occupied the territory – along with East Jerusalem – in 1967.

It formally enshrined the worldwide community’s disapproval of Israeli settlement building and could spur further Palestinian moves against Israel in global forums.

“He put out a statement about the Egyptian motion that was going to happen at the U.N. It was revoked”, Spicer said on NBC’s “Today” program on Friday.

“But we hope that the friendship that has existed between the two countries will be able to endure regardless of different view on this issue”. “The reality is there is not a single country in the world that supports Israeli settlements”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the measure as “shameful” and said Israel will not abide by its terms.

Graham told CNN that trying to defund the United Nations was a new approach.

“While the Security Council does nothing to prevent the massacre of half a million people in Syria, it is shamefully singling out Israel – the only democracy in the Middle East”.

The U.S. had been considering an abstention, a highly unusual move that could potentially rock already frigid relations between the U.S. and Israel, American officials said, though they would not disclose whether Obama had made a final decision.

Mr Trump had earlier joined with Mr Netanyahu in urging the Obama administration to veto the resolution as it was presented by Egypt. Israel says the resolution will convince Palestinians they can get what they want without having to negotiate with Israel, and will make them more intransigent.

A US abstention would have been seen as a parting shot by Obama, who has made the settlements a major target of his peace efforts.

US officials have voiced growing fears that a “two-state” solution is imperilled by Israeli settlement-building on land Palestinians want for a state. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war. For instance, he has said he wants to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem: a step that, as my colleague Zack Beauchamp explains, “every U.S. government has refrained from doing because the future of the disputed city is meant to be resolved as part of direct talks between the two sides for a final status peace deal”. Though opposed to the settlements, it has traditionally used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to block such resolutions.

The resolution was put forward at the 15-member council by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal a day after Egypt withdrew it under pressure from Israel and Trump.

After the vote Mr Trump tweeted: “As to the United Nations, things will be different after January 20th”.