Given former president Obama’s decision not to order a U.S. veto of a UN Security Council resolution condemning some Israeli settlement activity, as well as what had become a serious deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Israel, we were heartened by the American veto last week of the appointment of former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad as head of the UN mission to Libya.
The vocal grumbling by UN apparatchiks and diplomats upset by the rebuke made the development all the more welcome.
The veto signals a reset in U.S.-Israel relations and is an indication that the U.S. is prepared to use its veto power in connection even with internal UN bookkeeping issues and not just those that involve the direct targeting of Israel. This is consistent with President Trump’s campaign promise to pressure the UN to move away from its reflexively anti-Israel positions.
Although who serves as UN representative to Libya may not seem like such a big deal, Mr. Fayyad’s appointment to the post would have been a very big deal indeed. While he has the academic credentials, he was considered for the job primarily because of his stint as Palestinian Authority prime minister from 2007 to 2013. His appointment would have been seen as yet another advance toward Palestinian pseudo-statehood by virtue of a UN willing to bend the rules for its favorite non-state member.
The fast is, Mr. Fayyad had a deplorable record as prime minister and earlier as the PA finance minister beginning. At various intervals he enabled vast sums of international funds to be embezzled by his colleagues in the PA for their own use and to finance terrorism. As prime minister, he increased the PA’s payments to terrorists in Israeli prisons by 300 percent. He was also a leader in the international campaign to boycott and destroy the Israeli economy and promulgated laws prohibiting economic cooperation with Israel.
President Trump and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley deserve our thanks for denying Mr. Fayyad and the PA what would have been a major political coup.