It is not news the United Nations "gangs up against Israel," but there is "clear evidence" the United States was behind the action that lead to the UN's vote against Israel's West Bank settlement last week, Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said Monday.
"I think it was a very sad day and really a shameful chapter," Dermer told CNN's Don Lemon on the network's "New Day" program. "We have clear evidence of it [and] we will present that evidence to the new [Trump] administration, through the appropriate channels."
Dermer, agreeing with other key Israeli leaders President Barack Obama colluded with the United Nations on the vote, said it will then be up to President-elect Donald Trump and his administration to share Israel's evidence with the United States once he takes office.
"We are deeply disappointed by this decision that was made," said Dermer, following the United States' opting to abstain from the UN vote. "Look, I listened and heard a lot of the talks over the last three days about what this Security Council resolution means. It's very important to understand it, because people can get lost in all the details."
The Palestinians, he continued, "are trying to wage a diplomatic and legal war against Israel. They do not want to negotiate peace with us, which is why they've avoided negotiations for eight years. . . . What they want is to blame Israel for the lack of peace and to internationalize the conflict."
There has been a "difference of agreement" with the United States for years over Israel's settlements, Dermer conceded, but the United Nation's resolution was the first, in its Security Council, since President Jimmy Carter was in office 36 years ago.
"So, to bring a resolution to the Security Council is not just something that Israel opposes, it's something that [President] Barack Obama opposed," said Dermer, pointing out the president in September 2011 told the United Nations such issues should not be handed by the Security Council, but instead through negotiations.
"This is totally against American policy, as it was enunciated by President Barack Obama himself," Dermer said. "I don't believe that this administration, publicly will say that they think the western world has occupied Palestinian territory.
"But they just didn't veto a resolution that says precisely that. I don't believe that this administration will say publicly that they support boycotts and sanctions against Israel. But this resolution actually encourages that. I don't think this administration will say publicly that Israel should return to the 1967 line. But this resolution says that."
He also called the United States' action an "unfriendly act," as it "gives ammunition to our enemies waging a diplomatic and illegal war against Israel."
"We're celebrating Hanukkah this week, and 2,200 years ago the Maccabees were lighting that menorah on the temple mount," Dermer said. "Now all of a sudden, 2,200 years later, the United Nations is going to say that we're on occupied Palestinian territory. This is absurd."
However, he does not think Israel will pull out of the United Nations, even though it is a "cesspool of anti-Americanism and anti-Israel activity."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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