by WorldTribune Staff, December 26, 2016
Israel has “ironclad information” that President Barack Obama pushed the UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, an Israeli official said on Dec. 25.
The resolution was passed by the UN Security Council on Dec. 23 due to a U.S. abstention, a decision Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described as a “shameful ambush.”
David Keyes, spokesman for Netanyahu, told Fox News that “we have rather ironclad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place.”
The White House has acknowledged that Obama made the decision for U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power to abstain. How involved the Obama administration was in crafting and pushing the resolution itself has not been made clear.
The resolution was initially was put forward by Egypt, and then pursued by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela.
Netanyahu said that while the U.S. and Israel for decades had disagreed on settlements, they had an understanding that such action before the UN Security Council would make peace negotiations harder.
“As I told [Secretary of State] John Kerry on Thursday (Dec. 22), friends don’t take friends to the Security Council,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu said he looks forward to working with the Trump administration, saying he was encouraged by Israel’s “friends in the United States” who criticized the resolution, adding “they understand how reckless and destructive” the resolution is.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said to be emboldened by anti-Israel resolution, is threatening to sue Israeli officers in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“In 2017 we will go to The Hague,” Palestinian Arab journalist Nasser Lahham, told Channel 2 News on Dec. 25.
“We have hundreds of pages with names of IDF officers. Every pilot and every officer and every soldier, we have his picture, his name, and we are waiting for him at The Hague. If we succeed in just one case, it’s a different world,” added Lahham.
“I told my people on live television – we will take the Israelis to The Hague in suits and ties, we will place handcuffs on their hands,” said Lahham. “Do not use violence. This is a war without bullets. Just wait, give us another chance.”
After officially joining the ICC on April 1, 2015, the PA immediately filed a series of legal complaints with the court. In addition to claiming that Israel committed war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war, it also claimed that Israeli “settlements” are “an ongoing war crime.”
‘Ironclad information’: Israel charges Obama White House orchestrated UN vote added by World Tribune on
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