Israel’s ambassador to the United States said his country will present President-elect Donald Trump with “evidence” that the Obama administration orchestrated an anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Friday.
Ron Dermer told CNN that Israel is angry with the U.S. over the resolution because it is “the only country where we have any expectation to actually stand with us at the United Nations.”
The US abstained from the vote, which passed 14-0.
“It’s an old story that the United Nations gangs up against Israel,” Mr. Dermer said. “What is new is that the United States did not stand up and oppose that gang-up. And what is outrageous is that the United States was actually behind that gang-up.”
Confirming claims made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman a day earlier, Mr. Dermer said Israel has proof the White House drove the resolution. Israel will “present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels.”
“If they want to share it with the American people, they are welcome to do it,” he said, sidestepping a question on why Israel would not release the information itself.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman David Keyes said Arab sources, among others, had informed Jerusalem of President Obama’s alleged involvement in advancing the resolution.
“We have ironclad information, frankly, that the Obama administration really helped push this resolution and helped craft it, from sources internationally and sources in the Arab world,” Mr. Keyes told the U.S. media outlet.
The White House has adamantly denied “cooking up” the resolution, rejecting accusations by Mr. Netanyahu to that effect.
“We did not draft this resolution, we did not introduce this resolution,” Ben Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said. “We made this decision when it came up for a vote.”
But because of its opposition to settlement activity and concern for what it could mean for the region, the U.S. “could not in good conscience veto,” he added.
Me. Dermer, in a subsequent interview with MSNBC, called Mr. Rhodes a “master of fiction” — a harsh barb that seemed to evoke Mr. Rhodes’s past literary aspirations.
Mr. Netanyahu held a 40-minute meeting with U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro on Sunday evening, having summoned the envoy to explain why the U.S. abstained in the vote on Resolution 2334. He had earlier summoned the envoys of the 12 nations with representatives in Israel that voted for the resolution for a dressing-down at the Foreign Ministry.
“Israel is a country with national pride,” said Mr. Netanyahu. “We will not turn the other cheek.
“There is continued importance for this sort of response, even if there are more attempts to damage us in the coming month,” he said, referring to the remaining three and a half weeks of Mr. Obama’s term.
