On December 23rd, 2016 the United States failed to vote on a resolution to condemn Israeli settlements. The Security Council to passed the resolution 14-0, the first such condemnation in 36 years.
Charles Krauthammer harshly criticized the Obama administration’s break with the long-standing tradition of U.S support for Israel. “Obama took the measure of Israel’s back and slid a knife into it,” Krauthammer said in his weekly opinion piece for The Washington Post
“People don’t quite understand the damage done to Israel by the U.S. abstention that permitted passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel over settlements.” He continued. “The administration pretends this is nothing but a restatement of long-standing U.S. opposition to settlements.
Nonsense. For the past 35 years, every administration, including a reelection-seeking Obama himself in 2011, has protected Israel with the U.S. veto because such a Security Council resolution gives immense legal ammunition to every boycotter, anti-Semite and zealous European prosecutor to penalize and punish Israelis.”
Read Krauthammer’s full opinion here
