The office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Friday’s vote at the United Nations Security Council in favor of an anti-Israel resolution, calling it “shameful” and blasting President Barack Obama for ganging up against the Middle East’s one true democracy.
Netanyahu’s bureau sent Breitbart Jerusalem the following statement on the U.S. decision to abstain from the vote, thus ensuring the approval of the resolution:
Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms. At a time when the Security Council does nothing to stop the slaughter of half a million people in Syria, it disgracefully gangs up on the one true democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and calls the Western Wall “occupied territory.”
The Obama administration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes.
Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution.
Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, also condemned the resolution in the strongest terms and said “the sad truth is that today’s vote will be a victory for terror. It will be a victory for hatred and violence.” He implored the council “not to believe the lies presented in this resolution,” and reminded the council that Israel is the “historic homeland of the Jewish people.”
“By voting ‘yes’, in favor of this resolution, you have in fact voted ‘no.’ You voted ‘no’ to negotiations. You voted ‘no’ to progress and a chance for a better life for Israelis and Palestinians. And you voted ‘no’ for the possibility of peace,” Danon stated.
Danon asked for the international community to “put an end to the bias and obsession with Israel. Stop this endless attempt to blame all the problems of the Middle East on the one true democracy in the region.”
He cited the upcoming Jewish festival of lights known as Hanukkah, the first night of which coincides with Christmas Eve on Saturday night:
Over 2,000 years ago King Antiochus banished the Jewish people from our temple in Jerusalem… But we prevailed. The Jewish people fought back. We regained our Independence and we light the menorah candles in the temple. I ask each and every member of this council, who voted for this resolution, who gave you the right to issue such a decree denying our eternal rights in Jerusalem?
We overcame those decries during the time of the Maccabees and we will overcome this evil decree today. We have full confidence in the justice of our cause and in the righteousness of our path. We will continue to be a Democratic state, based on the rule of law and full civil and human rights for all our citizens. And we will continue to be a Jewish State, proudly reclaiming the land of our forefathers, where the Maccabees fought their oppressors and King David ruled from Jerusalem.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power justified the Obama administration’s decision to depart from longstanding U.S. policy of vetoing anti-Israel resolutions by claiming that “the settlements have no legality.”
Earlier on Friday, an Israeli official told reporters, including Breitbart Jerusalem’s Aaron Klein, that the Obama administration secretly worked with the Palestinian Authority to craft this “shameful” UN resolution behind Israel’s back.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter and Periscope @AdelleNaz
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