Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president-elect Donald Trump managed to foil a draft resolution that was introduced to the UN Security Council by Egypt against Israel’s settlements building policy in the West Bank. According to officials in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and Trump pressured Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who in turn instructed the Egyptian mission to the UN to postpone debating the draft resolution to an undetermined date, just before the debate was scheduled to take place. Senior Israeli and western officials revealed that the Obama administration had been planning for a long time to abstain from voting on the draft resolution and that Washington coordinated its plans this with the Palestinians.
The official said that Jerusalem had told the Obama administration in advance that it would ask Trump to intervene, as the implementation of such a resolution would tie the hands of the incoming Republican administration. Before Egypt decided to postpone the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a recorded statement in which he emphasized that one of the great pillars of the US-Israel alliance was Washington’s unwavering support to Jerusalem over the years to stand up for the Jewish state in the United Nations against any anti-Israel resolutions.
“Israelis deeply appreciate one of the great pillars of the US-Israel alliance: the willingness over many years of the United States to stand up in the UN and veto anti-Israel resolutions. I hope the US won’t abandon this policy; I hope it will abide by the principles set by President Obama himself in his speech in the UN in 2011: That peace will come not through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. And that’s why this proposed resolution is bad. It’s bad for Israel; it’s bad for the United States; and it’s bad for peace,” said Netanyahu.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby said that Egypt is currently discussion the text of the resolution with its Arab League partners, to see if any amendments need to be implemented in the resolution. That said, Kirby noted that he could not say how Washington would vote if the text would be put back on the table of the UN Security Council. “The Egyptians have pulled it back. They’ve asked for a postponement. They’re having discussions with their Arab League partners we need to let that process work its way through. If there’s changes to the text, obviously we’ll take a look at that but I really don’t want to get ahead of, any of, if any votes one way or the other and that’s you know if in fact, you know this comes back for a vote,” said John Kirby, US State Department Spokesman.