US Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and Ted Cruz (TX), both of whom were candidates this year for the Republican nomination for President, have come out loud and clear in their anger at Friday’s UN Security Council Vote which condemned Israeli settlements. The two are calling for America to end financial support for the United Nations unless the vote is repealed.
Just spoke with the PM of Israel Benjamin @Netanyahu. I let him know many Members of Congress will push back hard against this UN outrage.
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Thank you.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 23, 2016
I intend to recommend to the Trump Administration and new Congress the US suspend UN funding until this #Israel resolution is repealed.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 23, 2016
So what made this anti-Israel vote different from all other UN votes against Israel? Well this time the language not only condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but also declared all Israeli construction in Jerusalem on the other side of the pre-1967 border to be illegal. This wording includes the Jewish Quarter of the Old City which has been completely rebuilt in the last 50 years and the open prayer plaza in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site to the Jewish people.
So what exactly did Senators Cruz and Graham say? Lindsay Graham released the following statement:
“The Obama-Kerry foreign policy has gone from naïve and foolish to flat-out reckless. With friends like these, Israel doesn’t need any enemies.I anticipate this vote will create a backlash in Congress against the United Nations. The organization is increasingly viewed as anti-Semitic and seems to have lost all sense of proportionality. I will do everything in my power, working with the new Administration and Congress, to leave no doubt about where America stands when it comes to the peace process and where we stand with the only true democracy in the Middle East, Israel.
“The Middle East is on fire and Israel is surrounded by threats. Regardless of the terrorist attacks they suffer, or the number of rockets fired their way, Israel is always the bad guy in the United Nations.The United Nations will regret this vote and I hope the Obama Administration will realize the massive mistake they made on their way out of the door. With today’s abstention, the Obama Administration has empowered evil and been a very poor friend to democracy.”
Lindsay Graham also told CNN, “This is a road we haven’t gone down before. If you can’t show the American people that international organizations can be more responsible, there is going to be a break. And I am going to lead that break.”
“I will do everything in my power, ” he added, “working with the new administration and Congress, to leave no doubt about where America stands when it comes to the peace process and where we stand with the only true democracy in the Middle East, Israel”
Spoke w/ Israeli PM @netanyahu tonight to wish him Happy Chanukah & assure him of strong support in Congress. No US $ for UN until reversed.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 24, 2016
As for Senator Ted Cruz, he tweeted the above Chanukah greeting to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in which he promised “No US $ for UN until reversed.”
And Senator Cruz also released a statement saying that he, “emphatically second(s) the call of my colleague Sen. Lindsey Graham that the consequences of this disgraceful UN resolution should be severe. I look forward to working with Sen. Graham, and with the incoming Administration of President-elect Trump, to significantly reduce or even eliminate U.S. funding of the United Nations, and also to seriously reconsider financial support for the nations that supported this resolution. For those who have put your name to this despicable attack on Israel, you did so with full knowledge of the consequences of your actions.”
Friends of Israel will surely applaud these statements. But it should be remembered here that it is very easy for American politicians to make such declarations. Members of the Congress from both parties regularly condemn the UN for ant-Israel biases. Also, Graham and Cruz may be thinking about running for President again and attacking the UN is always popular among Republican voters.
However, as the Republican Party retains it majority in both the House and Senate, and the next President will be a Republican, Donald Trump, who has no love for the United Nations and has already condemned the vote — a vote which he actually tried to prevent from even taking place — it is more than likely that America will move to defend the UN.
