Israel to re-assess U.N. ties after settlement resolution, says Netanyahu
Source: Reuters
Sat Dec 24, 2016 | 2:46pm EST
Israel will re-assess its ties with the United Nations following the adoption by the Security Council of a resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.
The vote was able to pass the 15-member council on Friday because the United States broke with a long-standing approach of diplomatically shielding Israel and did not wield its veto power as it had on many times before - a decision that Netanyahu called "shameful".
"I instructed the Foreign Ministry to complete within a month a re-evaluation of all our contacts with the United Nations, including the Israeli funding of U.N. institutions and the presence of U.N. representatives in Israel," Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks.
"I have already instructed to stop about 30 million shekels ($7.8 million) in funding to five U.N. institutions, five bodies, that are especially hostile to Israel ... and there is more to come," he said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-un-idUSKBN14C1IV
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Settlements are simply a provocation to the world, and a thumb in the eye to the Obama administration.
Corrupt Trump will learn - the world is very complicated, and the Middle East has eaten a lot of administrations before this particularly stupid one showed up.
MFM008
(19,776 posts)WHINING.
fleabiscuit
(4,542 posts)TomCADem
(17,378 posts)In next Tuesdays election, is Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, hoping to gain the upper hand by showing voters that he can influence U.S. policy or by taking a hard new line on never giving up the West Bank? The answer to this question says a lot about which way influence really runs between Israel and the United States.
Netanyahus spit-at-the-White-House-from-Capitol-Hill speech has led some commentators to criticize him for running on a boast that he can bend at least Republican policymakers in the United States to his will. After all, they point out, he won at least a dozen standing ovations in Netanyahus address to Congress. But Israeli voters have other, very practical, concerns on their mind such as the affordability of housing and ever-rising income inequality. They are too smart and too cynical to believe the tired old trope that anyone in Israel exercises some kind of special influence over U.S. policy.
Intriguingly, Netanyahu knows that as well as anyone. And that suggests that what hes really selling in this election is the other big piece of news his latest campaign has generated his apparent repudiation of a two-state solution for Palestine and a promise to hold on to the West Bank.
Digging a little beneath the surface of both the speech to Congress and his Likud Partys recent announcement that Netanyahu no longer supports a two-state solution shows powerful U.S. influences on Israel at work, which may not be in Israels long-term security interest.
tenorly
(2,037 posts)Israel's problem is its petty, almost despotic, current leadership. They're doing's what easy, not what's right - and that seldom turns out well for any of the parties involved.
Blue Shoes
(220 posts)If the whole world doesn't like the garbage you're pulling, maybe you should stop.
Blue Idaho
(4,988 posts)Israel owes it existence to the UN. Going it alone is a catastrophically bad idea.