Reuters - Benjamin
Netanyahu has been unrelenting in his criticism of the Obama administration over
what he condemned as its "shameful" decision not to veto a U.N.
Security Council resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement-building.
But with the
clock ticking down on Barack Obama's presidency, a possibly more amenable
Republican Donald Trump waiting in the wings and a $38 billion U.S. military
aid package to Israel a done deal, it's all a calculated risk for the
four-term, right-wing Israeli prime minister.
Netanyahu,
after what critics are calling a stinging defeat on the international stage, is
already maneuvering to mine deep-seated feelings among many Israelis that their
country and its policies toward the Palestinians are overly criticized in a
world where deadlier conflicts rage.
He has tried
to rally Israelis around him by attempting to portray the anti-settlement
resolution as a challenge to Israel's claimed sovereignty over all of
Jerusalem.
That was
hammered home with an unscheduled Hanukkah holiday visit to the Western Wall,
one of Judaism's holiest sites, which is located in Jerusalem's Old City in the
eastern sector captured along with the West Bank in a 1967 war.
That all of
Jerusalem is their country's capital is a consensus view among Israelis,
including those who otherwise have doubts about the wisdom of Netanyahu's
support for settlements on the West Bank.
Palestinians
claim eastern Jerusalem as their capital, and Washington has in the past
accepted an international view that the city's status must be determined at
future peace talks. But Trump has promised to reverse decades of U.S. policy by
moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
"I did
not plan to be here this evening but in light of the U.N. resolution I thought
that there was no better place to light the second Hanukkah candle than the
Western Wall," Netanyahu said during the event.
"I ask
those same countries that wish us a Happy Hanukkah how they could vote for a
U.N. resolution which says that this place, in which we are now celebrating
Hanukkah, is occupied territory?"
Some 570,000
Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as
part of a future state.
At the weekly
cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu brushed aside a White House denial and
again accused the Obama administration of colluding with the Palestinians in
the U.N. move against the settlements, which are considered illegal by most
countries and described as illegitimate by Washington.
Disputing
this, Israel cites biblical, historical and political links to the West Bank
and Jerusalem, as well as security concerns.
The diplomatic
drama unfolded over the Christmas holiday, with twists and turns unusual even
for the serpentine path followed by Netanyahu's relationship with a Democratic
president who opposes settlement building.
On Thursday,
Netanyahu successfully lobbied Egypt, which proposed the draft resolution, to
withdraw it - enlisting the help of President-elect Trump to persuade Cairo to
drop the bid.
But the
Israeli leader was ultimately outmaneuvered at the United Nations, where New
Zealand, Venezuela, Senegal and Malaysia, resubmitted the proposal a day later.
It passed
14-0, with an abstention from the United States, withholding Washington's
traditional use of its veto to protect Israel at the world body in what was widely
seen as a parting shot by Obama against Netanyahu and his settlement policy.
ACCELERATED
CONSTRUCTION
A U.S.
official said key to Washington's decision was concern that Israel would
continue to accelerate settlement construction in occupied territory and put a
two-state solution of the conflict with the Palestinians at risk.
The resolution
adopted on Friday at the U.N. changes nothing on the ground between Israel and
the Palestinians and likely will be all but ignored by the incoming Trump
administration.
However,
Israeli officials fear it could spur further Palestinian moves against Israel
in international forums.
"The
Obama administration made a shameful, underhanded move," Netanyahu said
after the vote. It was some of the sharpest criticism he has voiced against
Obama, who got off on the wrong foot with Israelis when he skipped their
country during a Middle East visit after first taking office in 2009.
In a further
display of anger, Netanyahu summoned the U.S. ambassador to meet him during a
day of reprimands delivered at the Foreign Ministry to envoys of the 10
countries with embassies in Israel among the 14 that backed the resolution.
Netanyahu, who
is vying with the ultranationalist Jewish Home Party in his governing coalition
for right-wing voters, also took aim at what has become a favorite target - an
Israeli media he has been painting as left-wing and unpatriotic.
"Leftist
political parties and TV commentators have been rubbing their hands in glee
over the anti-Israeli decision at the United Nations, almost like the
Palestinian Authority and Hamas," Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page.
But more
trouble for the Israeli leader could be ahead at a planned 70-nation,
French-hosted conference on Middle East peace due to convene in Paris on Jan.
15, five days before Obama hands over to Trump.
"(Netanyahu)
fears there is a U.S.-French move brewing before January 20th, possibly a
declarative step at the French peace convention," said an Israeli official
who attended an Israeli security cabinet session on Sunday.
Reuters
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