Congress Moves to Head Off President Obama at U.N.

Congress is mounting a bipartisan preemption of a possible Mideast initiative by the outgoing Obama administration.

Members of both major parties in the House of Representatives lined up to sign a “sense of” resolution, a non-binding statement that urges President Barack Obama to refrain from “imposing a solution” on Israel and the Palestinians either at the United Nations or the Paris peace initiative, The Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.

The resolution, which expresses the majority sentiment, was introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Ed Royce (R-California) and ranking member Eliot Engel (D-New York).

Obama has reportedly been considering a parting shot, in the form of backing a Palestinian resolution in the Security Council, or a major speech on the Mideast.

The resolution also coincides with a policy shift among Republicans, reflected by the party platform at last summer’s convention which deleted any reference of a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict.

Also on Wednesday, Trent Franks (R-Arizona), co-chair of the Congressional Israel Allies Caucus, planned a press conference on the issue.

Franks was expected to “express a strong warning to the Obama administration against taking any action on the Israel-Palestine peace process prior to the Presidential Inauguration and the opening of the 115th Congress,” said his staff in a press release.