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On the same day as the U.N. Security Council passed a controversial resolution condemning Israel, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Friday approved a budget that includes $138,700 to fund the compilation of a first-ever U.N. blacklist of private companies doing business in territories disputed between Israel and the Palestinians. Defined in U.N. documents as a “database,” the blacklist will cover companies of any nationality that do business in Israeli “settlements” located in areas claimed by the Palestinians, including Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter. The move, which was mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) last March, is expected to benefit...

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., made the comments Monday in an interview with MSNBC when asked to react to accusations that the Israeli government has proof that the Obama administration helped influence the U.N. Security Council's vote to condemn Israeli settlements. . . . Israel is now "running their own war against us and our policies" because they are angry that Obama has pushed back against telling them to stop with settlements, McDermott said.

Netanyahu: "Israel has national pride. We do not turn the other cheek" NEW YORK - With President Barack Obama's direction, last Friday the United States departed from its long-held position of vetoing a United Nations resolution that condemned Israel's settlements. The action outraged lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Prime Minister Netanyahu strongly condemned the United Nations resolution and expressed disappointment that the United States abandoned its previous support. Monday he said "Israel has national pride. We do not turn the other cheek." He suggested over the weekend that Israel may consider pulling out of the U.N. U.S. Senator...

The Swedish government has welcomed Friday’s UN resolution calling for Israel to end illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, with Foreign Minister Margot Wallström calling the decision “very positive”. […] In a statement, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the resolution “shameful”. Sweden is scheduled to join the security council for two years starting in January 2017, and will chair the council during that month. …

The United States could have killed a key United Nations resolution that condemned Israel for its West Bank settlements by voting against it rather than abstaining, former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Friday night, but he thinks President Barack Obama took the action to "box the incoming Trump administration in." "This was a stab in the back against the Israelis," Bolton told Fox News' "Hannity" show Friday night. "It was entirely predictable. I would say this for people in the pro-Israel community in the United States who defended Obama's Middle East policy over these last eight years: You should have...

Hannity, Fox News, December 23 2016

A "shameful" abstention by the U.S. in a United Nations Security Council vote Friday allowed passage of a resolution condemning Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. The resolution was put forward by New Zealand, Malaysia, Venezuela and Senegal after Egypt withdrew it Thursday under pressure from Israel and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. It was adopted with 14 votes in favor, to a round of applause, after U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power abstained. It is the first resolution the Security Council has adopted on Israel and the Palestinians in nearly eight years. Reaction from U.S. Republicans and Jewish leaders around...

President-elect Donald Trump Friday slammed the United Nations Security Council's vote to condemn Israel for its settlements in the West Bank, pledging that "things will be different" after his inauguration next month. . . . Trump's tweet marked an unprecedented intervention by a president-elect in the diplomatic affairs of a sitting commander-in-chief — sparking widespread accusations that he was trying to undermine Obama's position.

An Israeli official is accusing President Barack Obama of a “shameful move against Israel at the U.N.” after learning the White House did not intend to veto a Security Council resolution condemning settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The official said the “U.S. Administration secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel's back.” …

Egyptian officials scrapped a plan to proceed with a United Nations Security Council vote condemning the construction of Israeli settlements, following pushback from Israeli officials and President-elect Trump. "Egypt requested the vote's delay to permit them to conduct an additional meeting of the Arab League's foreign ministers to work on the resolution's wording," Haaretz reported, citing Western diplomats. But the vote might be postponed "indefinitely," according to the report. Israeli settlement construction drew condemnation from the State Department earlier this year, in addition to the rebukes of mo

Outgoing US Secretary State John Kerry expressed disappointment Sunday that his efforts over the past four years have not put an end to the construction of homes in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Speaking at the Saban Forum, Kerry said that Israel is "heading to a place of danger" and that the chances for peace are eroding "by virtue of this continued settlement process." "I don't agree with him that settlements are not an obstacle to peace," Kerry said. "Let's not kid ourselves here– you can't just wipe it away by saying it doesn't have an impact. It has...

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry excoriated the Israeli right, claiming that support for settlement construction stems from a desire to subvert Israeli-Palestinian peace, during a speech before the Brookings Institution’s Saban Forum on Sunday afternoon. A subdued Kerry, wearing reading glasses and referring to extensive notes, notably refrained from committing to veto any UN resolution intended to establish a Palestinian state, only promising a veto “if it is a biased, unfair resolution calculated to delegitimize Israel.” US officials last week indicated that US President Barack Obama had nearly ruled out any major last-ditch effort to put pressure on...

France published an official notification Thursday urging businesses to use labels to identify goods produced in the Israeli settlements, prompting a swift condemnation from Israel. It was not immediately clear whether the notice published in the French Official Journal is binding for retailers or a recommendation. A press official with the trade ministry said late Thursday she was not aware of the notification and couldn’t immediately say whether it was mandatory or advisory. In Nov. 2015, the European Union recommended that its member states put special labels on exports from the West Bank, but said the technical guidelines on the...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday expressed concern that U.S. President Barack Obama, during the final days of his term in office, might take diplomatic steps that could harm the fate of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Israel is concerned that the United States might not rally to its assistance in the event that an anti-settlement resolution is put to a vote in the United Nations Security Council and that Washington might not use its veto to quash such a move.

The Palestinians say they are sounding out members of the U.N. Security Council on a new resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlement building and about prospects for becoming a full member of the United Nations. Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Thursday he has met about half the 15-member council in the last 10 days and expects to meet the rest in the next week. He said he will then report back to the Arab ministerial committee which will decide on next steps. …

Republicans in Congress are plotting ways to block the Obama administration from paying insurance companies hundreds of millions of dollars as part of an ObamaCare program. GOP lawmakers say they are looking at “a dozen” options — including a possible provision in the year-end spending bill — to prevent the administration from using an obscure fund within the Treasury Department to pay out massive settlements to insurers. The insurance companies are suing over a shortfall in an ObamaCare program that they say is damaging their businesses. Settling the cases could help insurers deal with losses on the ObamaCare marketplaces, but...

The White House accused Israel of a betrayal of trust, in an unusually sharp rebuke over its plans to build hundreds of new settlement homes deep in the West Bank. Days after President Barack Obama approved a $38 billion Israeli military aid package and attended former president Shimon Peres’s funeral in Jerusalem, the White House railed at the construction of 300 housing units on land “far closer to Jordan than Israel.” Warning that the decision jeopardizes the already distant prospect of Middle East peace as well as Israel’s own security, press secretary Josh Earnest said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s word...

JERUSALEM (AP) — In his landmark speech to the Arab world seven years ago, President Barack Obama warned that Israeli settlements on occupied territories were undermining hopes for peace. “It is time for these settlements to stop,” he declared. As Obama heads into the home stretch of his presidency, he leaves behind an unfulfilled vision. Not only did he fail to stop it, but he watched Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem thrive — despite repeated White House condemnations. According to Israeli government data obtained by The Associated Press, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed a wave...

Obama administration officials and leaders of the Zionist Union party lambasted Israel’s government on Sunday over a 70 million shekel spending plan for Yesha towns, including a large allocation to boost security. The coalition government passed on Sunday morning the spending plan, which includes 15 million shekels to bolster Yesha communities suffering from Arab terrorism in recent months. Also included in the spending package is 10 million shekels for renovations and improvements on public facilities, 12 million shekels for security improvements, 6 million shekels for social services, and 5.5 million shekels for tourism sites. In response, US State Department spokesman...

Following reports Wednesday morning of possible cuts in American military aid to Israel, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the Obama administration was prepared to give the biggest military aid package in history, calling it “the largest single pledge of military assistance from the United States to any country in our history, cementing an unparalleled security relationship all the way to 2029". Blinken’s comments came during his address at the Herzliya Conference Wednesday afternoon. While the Deputy Secretary indicated the White House was likely to increase aid to Israel, he emphasized the Jewish state’s need to take concrete...