U.S. House Votes for Defense of Israel at U.N.

By 

Nathanael Bennett

|
November 30, 2016

3 min read

Israel

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There is good news in our ongoing effort to defend Israel from attack at the United Nations. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a bipartisan resolution in defense of Israel by voice vote.

As a reminder, we have become increasingly concerned by reports that President Obama is considering a number of problematic options that would infringe on Israel’s sovereignty and potentially jeopardize its security. Most serious among these options would be U.S. support for some version of a forced “peace resolution” at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This tactic has been advanced many times before and is predicated on the idea that Israel must return to borders that have proven to compromise its national security.

The U.S. has traditionally exercised its veto authority at the UNSC to block such a resolution, but in recent years the Obama Administration has taken a much weaker posture. In fact, the State Department is currently unwilling to give any assurance whatsoever that such a resolution would be met with a U.S. veto.

In letters to each of the five permanent members of the UNSC—China, France, Russia, U.S. and U.K.—the ACLJ has outlined the numerous legal perils of such a resolution, as well as the likelihood that it would result in a full-scale military conflict.

In summary, the rest of the world looks to the U.S. for guidance on this issue, and a failure by the U.S. to provide a veto at the UNSC would spell disaster for Israel and the Middle East region at-large. That is why we have engaged both domestically and internationally in opposition to this type of UNSC resolution.

Fortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives approved H.Con.Res. 165, which strongly asserts the House’s opposition to any UNSC resolution that threatens the sovereignty of Israel. This is particularly good news given that both House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY) were lead sponsors of the resolution.

This is a very important statement from Congress, and a major victory for those of you who have called for elected officials to take a stand for Israel.

We will continue to call on the Obama Administration to refrain from taking any of these dangerous actions at the U.N. But for this week, the U.S. House of Representatives has taken an important step in the proper direction.

To stand with us, please sign our petition to defend Israel at the U.N.