Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told participants at a Chanukah lighting ceremony for wounded IDF soldiers, disabled veterans and terror victims on Saturday night that Israel is “reevaluating its ties with the United Nations.” He also said the Jewish State would “overcome” the anti-Israel condemnation, Resolution 2334 (2016), passed unanimously Friday by the UN Security Council with the assistance of the United States.
“The resolution … is distorted and disgraceful, but we will overcome it,” the prime minister said. “The resolution determines that the Jewish Quarter (in Jerusalem) is occupied territory. It determines that the Western Wall, the Kotel, is occupied territory. There is no greater absurd than that,” he said.
Netanyahu pointed out that the last U.S. president who was vindictive enough to allow such an anti-Israel resolution to pass at the UN Security Council had been former President Jimmy Carter, who until today maintains that Hamas is not a terror organization.
Netanyahu commented that Carter was a “particularly hostile president to Israel… Carter passed similar sweeping resolutions against us at the UN and that didn’t succeed either,” he said. “We objected to it, and nothing happened.
“All of the U.S. presidents after Carter met the American commitment not to try and dictate to Israel at the Security Council conditions for a final-status agreement. And yesterday, in complete contradiction of this commitment—including a specific commitment made by President Obama himself in 2011—the Obama administration carried out a disgraceful anti-Israeli underhanded move at the UN,” he said.
“Not only does the resolution not promote peace – it pushes it further away,” he added, vowing to “cancel” this resolution “just as we rejected the UN resolution that equated Zionism with racism… It took a while, but that decision was canceled. It’ll take time, but this decision will be canceled as well, not by concessions from us, but by us, and by our allies standing firm.
“Here on the eve of Chanukah I stand next to the modern-day Maccabees – IDF soldiers and wounded soldiers. I salute you and say this clearly: Light will banish the darkness.
“The spirit of the Maccabees will come out on top.”