Netanyahu: Israel Will Resist Any U.N. Attempt to Impose Solution

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would continue to “vigorously rebuff attempts to force terms on us that would endanger our security and our future.”

Referring to the Palestinian proposal in the U.N. Security Council, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting that the purpose of the resolution is to “bring about an imposed settlement that would establish here a second Hamastan and would endanger our security.”

The U.S. has said that it will not support the resolution.

The 15-member Security Council changes composition on January 1, with Angola, Venezuela, Malaysia, Spain and New Zealand replacing Rwanda, Argentina, South Korea, Luxembourg and Australia on the world body, and giving the 2015 Security Council a more pro-Palestinian leaning than the outgoing Council.

Palestinian insistence on a vote before the end of the year may not just be due to impatience. Some suggest that a vote now might be calculated to actually avoid forcing a U.S. veto, since the current Security Council will vote it down without the need of a U.S. veto. If they wait until the new members come in, the U.S. might have to use its veto, which will put them and the Palestinians in an uncomfortable position.

Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said that there will be a “violent backlash” in Congress against the U.N. if it tries to “take over the peace process.” The backlash could mean a suspension of funding, he said.

Graham made the comment on Motzoei Shabbos during a meeting with Netanyahu in Yerushalayim.

“President [Barack] Obama in 2011 said the United Nations was not the right venue when it came to discussing the peace process in reaching a two-state solution. I agree with what President Obama said in 2011,” Graham added.

Graham is expected to take over as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, which deals with funding issues.
The senior Republican and a 2016 presidential prospect assured Netanyahu that while the international community “seems to be a bit confused,” Congress “clearly sees the difference between the tactics of Hamas and the democracy called Israel.”

Netanyahu said to Graham that these are the same Palestinians who work in partnership with Hamas and constantly incite violence against Israelis, which leads to the kind of attack we just had a couple of days ago, a firebombing of a young Israeli girl.

The prime minister also noted the remark just a day before of chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, comparing Israel to the Islamic State. “This is the same Palestinian Authority that seeks to impose a solution on us in the Security Council that will harm our security.”

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the December 29th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.