Free Republic

The US on Thursday vetoed a Security Council resolution to admit the Palestinian Authority as a full member state of the United Nations. 12 countries voted in favor of the resolution: Slovenia, Sierra Leone, Russia, South Korea, Mozambique, Malta, Japan, Guyana, France, Ecuador, China, and Algeria. Two countries abstained – Britain and Switzerland. Foreign Minister Israel Katz said following the vote, “The proposal to recognize a Palestinian state, more than 6 months after the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and after the sexual crimes and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists was a reward for terrorism.” “I commend...

The United Nations Security Council has scheduled a meeting for November 11, and sources indicate the resolution for Palestinian statehood will likely be voted on that day. Though the US has threatened to veto the measure, the Palestinians hope to get the nine votes necessary for approval, forcing the U.S. to step in to stop it. Currently eight of the nine countries needed have declared support for the measure. My sources in Israel fear that a US veto will be the trigger for a new outbreak of violence and perhaps even full-scale war. Iran has spent hundreds of millions arming...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - France last cast a lone veto in 1976, over a resolution to recognize the tiny island of Mayotte as part of the newly independent state of Comoros. For the United States, it was three months ago, over a resolution condemning violence in the Middle East, specifically the killing of U.N. employees by Israeli soldiers and the destruction of a U.N. warehouse filled with food for needy Palestinians. The power to veto, held by an exclusive five-member club of the Security Council, allows the world's most powerful nations to shape international peace and security. But in the...