Ted Cruz: ‘No $ for UN’ Until Anti-Israel Resolution Reversed

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the 2016 American Isra
AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweeted on Saturday that he would oppose funding for the United Nations until the UN Security Council reversed an anti-Israel resolution that it approved on Friday, with the acquiescence of the Obama administration.

The resolution not only describes the Israeli presence across the 1949 armistice line as illegal — including in the Old City of Jerusalem — but also encourages countries to target Israeli settlements for boycotts.

The Obama administration had vetoed a similar resolution five years ago, taking the traditional U.S. position that the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians is best resolved between the two parties, and not by the UN. However, President Barack Obama and outgoing UN Ambassador Samantha Power — a genocide expert known for anti-Israel views, and notably silent on Syria for most of the past eight years — could not resist the opportunity to land a parting blow against Israel, and abstained from the resolution rather than vetoing it.

In a statement on Friday, reacting to the UN Security Council vote, Cruz said:

For eight long years, the Obama administration has worked systematically to undermine the nation of Israel. They actively worked to defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu, and illegally used U.S. taxpayer funds to do so. Never has there been a more anti-Israel Administration, and today’s United Nations vote is the culmination of their systemic agenda to weaken Israel and strengthen its enemies.

I also emphatically second the call of my colleague Sen. Lindsey Graham that the consequences of this disgraceful UN resolution should be severe. I look forward to working with Sen. Graham, and with the incoming Administration of President-elect Trump, to significantly reduce or even eliminate U.S. funding of the United Nations, and also to seriously reconsider financial support for the nations that supported this resolution. For those who have put your name to this despicable attack on Israel, you did so with full knowledge of the consequences of your actions.

And for those who acquiesced or facilitated the UN resolution–especially President Obama, Secretary Kerry, and Ambassador Power–history will record your abiding and shameful legacy undermining our friend and ally Israel. I am hopeful at least some Senate Democrats will choose to repudiate your anti-Israel actions, and I am grateful that the new Administration has committed to once again restoring our strong and unequivocal support for the Nation of Israel.

In a rare moment of agreement with Cruz, the Washington Post criticized Obama’s move:

… settlements do not explain the administration’s repeated failures to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace. The Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas proved unwilling to negotiate seriously even during the settlement freeze, and it refused to accept a framework for negotiations painstakingly drawn up by Secretary of State John F. Kerry in 2014. … Whatever the motivation, Mr. Obama’s gesture is likely to do more harm than good.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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