What the UN vote says about how Trump will treat Israel
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Story highlights
UN vote offers a glimpse of Trump-Netanyahu relationship
Trump has clearly stated his intention to engineer a sharp shift in US policy toward Israel
WashingtonCNN
—
It’s Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu against the world.
A dramatic vote Friday at the United Nations Security Council likely marked the final chapter in President Barack Obama’s troubled relationship with Netanyahu.
But perhaps more importantly, the vote – in which the United States allowed a resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction to pass – offered a glimpse of how the President-elect and the Israeli Prime Minister are poised to soon overhaul the relationship between their two countries.
Trump and Netanyahu stood shoulder-to-shoulder this week. In days of tense diplomatic maneuvering ahead of the vote, the Israelis enlisted Trump in a bid to stop the measure in its tracks, a striking attempt to pressure the outgoing administration. Trump’s response – a tweet, a statement calling for a US veto and a call with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, whose government originally drew up the resolution – previewed where he will steer US-Israeli policy.
The Trump-Netanyahu alliance flouts traditional protocol regarding how foreign governments and presidents-in-waiting act. It didn’t prevail – for now – as the resolution passed on a 14-0 vote, with the US abstaining. The vote was a blow for Israel as the world effectively lined up to censure its settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which many nations see as an obstacle to stalled peace talks and the ever more elusive notion of a Palestinian state.
Still, Trump and Netanyahu charted the future course of US-Israeli relations after Trump is inaugurated.
“As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th,” Trump tweeted after the vote.
On Saturday, Trump tweeted, “The big loss yesterday for Israel in the United Nations will make it much harder to negotiate peace. Too bad, but we will get it done anyway!”
Relishing the Trump administration
The Israelis, who accused the Obama administration of abandoning a longtime US ally, made no secret of their relish at the prospect of a new administration.
“Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Obama’s foes in Israel and in Congress, meanwhile, argued that by failing to veto the resolution, the outgoing President was turning his back on diplomatic precedent under which Washington has shielded Israel at the UN. (Presidents of both parties have allowed resolutions that were at least somewhat critical of Israel over the Palestinian question to pass during their tenure.)
Trump, however, has clearly stated his intention to engineer a sharp shift in US policy toward Israel, aligning his administration closer to Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud-led coalition.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan shows Trump and his wife, Melania, the Speaker's Balcony at the US Capitol on Thursday, November 10.
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Trump shakes hands with President Barack Obama following a meeting in the Oval Office on November 10. Obama told his successor that he wanted him to succeed and would do everything he could to ensure a smooth transition.
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Trump delivers his acceptance speech during his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel on Wednesday, November 9.
He has vowed to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, breaking with the practice of several of his predecessors who campaigned saying they would move the embassy during their campaigns but balked once they were in the White House.
Critics of moving the embassy say doing so would inflame Arab opinion and make it impossible for the US to ever be a broker between Israel and the Palestinians in future. The Palestinians see Jerusalem, which is sacred to Islam, Christianity and Judaism, as the future capital of their proposed future state.
Trump’s nominee to become the next ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, has been an outspoken supporter of settler groups and has cast doubt on the notion of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
The reset of relations that Trump is promising has notable support in the United States, particularly in Congress, where lawmakers condemned Obama’s failure to wield the US veto at the UN. Even some Democrats, including incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, questioned the administration’s move.
The President-elect’s reorientation of US-Israeli relations could have unpredictable results internationally.
A decision to move the US embassy, for example, would cause outrage among Palestinians and could erupt into violence. It would also likely pile pressure on Arab allies of the US to condemn the move, complicating Trump’s other priorities – notably getting more buy-in from US allies in the Gulf for an escalated operation to crush ISIS.
Moving the embassy and a shift toward Netanyahu could cause fissures with Trump’s relations with some European allies already deeply perturbed by his election. It could also intensify interest around the world in the boycott, divestments and sanctions movement (BDS) led by Palestinians to punish Israel.
Footnote for history
While Trump and Netanyahu used the UN resolution to make a statement about the future, the Obama administration was constructing a footnote for history.
The US decision not to veto the move was a clear statement of frustration with Israel because the administration believes its two failed efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians foundered on a refusal by the Israeli government to renounce settlement building.
“It was a parting shot in defense of what the Obama administration and Secretary (of State John) Kerry believe to be the waning hopes of a two-state solution,” Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East adviser to Democratic and Republican presidents, told CNN.
Photos: Netanyahu's life in pictures
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem on October 27.
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Netanyahu, right, sits with a friend at the entrance to his family home in Jerusalem on July 1, 1967. The Israeli prime minister was born October 21, 1949.
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Netanyahu, right, with a friend in the Judean Desert on May 1, 1968.
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Netanyahu serves in the Sayeret Matkal, an elite commando unit of the Israeli army, in 1971. He spent five years in the unit.
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Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Zalman Shazar during a November 1972 ceremony honoring the Sayeret Matkal soldiers who freed hostages in a hijacking earlier that year.
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Netanyahu and his first wife, Miriam, in June 1980.
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Netanyahu and his daughter, Noa, in June 1980.
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Netanyahu speaks in July 1986 with Sorin Hershko, one of the Israeli soldiers wounded in Operation Entebbe. It was the 10th anniversary of Operation Entebbe, a dramatic rescue of Jewish hostages at Uganda's Entebbe Airport. Netanyahu's brother, Yonatan, was killed leading Operation Entebbe in 1976. Affected by his brother's death, Netanyahu organized two international conferences on ways to combat terrorism, one in 1979 and another in 1984.
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From 1984 to 1988, Netanyahu was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.
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Netanyahu talks to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on a stroll in New York's Central Park in November 1987.
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Netanyahu, as Israel's deputy foreign minister, goes through some papers as Government Secretary Elyakim Rubinstein recites morning prayers on a flight from New York to Washington in April 1989.
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Shamir speaks with Netanyahu at a Middle East peace conference in Madrid in October 1991.
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Netanyahu celebrates after being elected chairman of the right-wing Likud party on March 21, 1993.
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Netanyahu and former foreign minister David Levy sit in the Knesset during the vote for a new Israeli President on March 24, 1993.
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Netanyahu meets with King Hussein of Jordan, center, and Crown Prince Hassan in December 1994. It was Netanyahu's first visit to Jordan.
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Netanyahu shakes hands with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres before taking the office himself in June 1996.
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Netanyahu meets with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for the first time on September 4, 1996, at an Israeli army base at the Erez Checkpoint in Gaza.
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Netanyahu meets with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington in February 1997.
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Netanyahu spends the day on the beach with his wife, Sara, and son Avner in Caesarea, Israel, on August 16, 1997.
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Actor Kirk Douglas holds the King David Award, presented to him by the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah during a dinner in Beverly Hills, California, on November 17, 1997. Douglas was honored for his inspirational commitment to Israel and the Jewish people and in recognition of his new book "Climbing the Mountain." Netanyahu is on the left. To the right is Rabbi Nachum Braverman, director of the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah.
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Netanyahu looks through binoculars during a tour of the West Bank with the Israeli Cabinet on December 28, 1997.
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Netanyahu and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan meet in Annan's office in New York on May 15, 1998.
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From left, Arafat, King Hussein, US President Bill Clinton and Netanyahu sign an interim Middle East peace agreement in October 1998.
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Netanyahu thanks a crowd of supporters in Tel Aviv, Israel, at a Likud party meeting in May 1999. The outgoing Prime Minister announced that he was quitting the Knesset and stepping down as party leader 10 days after being defeated in elections.
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Netanyahu testifies before the US House Government Reform Committee on September 20, 2001. The committee was conducting hearings on terrorism following the September 11 attacks.
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Netanyahu, as Israel's foreign minister, laughs with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the start of a Likud convention in Tel Aviv on November 12, 2002.
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Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are seen at a polling station in Jerusalem on August 14, 2007. He was re-elected as head of the Likud party.
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Netanyahu shakes hands with Israeli President Shimon Peres in February 2009 after Netanyahu won backing from the Israeli parliament to become Prime Minister again. A close election between Netanyahu and rival Tzipi Livni had left the results unclear until the parliament's decision.
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From left, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II walk to the East Room of the White House to make statements on the Middle East peace process on September 1, 2010.
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Obama meets with Netanyahu at the White House in September 2010.
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on as Abbas and Netanyahu shake hands in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on September 14, 2010, during a second round of Middle East peace talks.
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British Prime Minister David Cameron welcomes Netanyahu to 10 Downing Street in London on May 4, 2011.
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Netanyahu address a joint session of the US Congress on May 24, 2011. He said that he was prepared to make "painful compromises" for a peace settlement with the Palestinians, but he repeated that Israel will not accept a return to its pre-1967 boundaries.
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Netanyahu uses a diagram of a bomb to describe Iran's nuclear program while delivering an address to the UN General Assembly on September 27, 2012. Netanyahu exhorted the General Assembly to draw "a clear red line" to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
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Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman of the Likud-Beiteinu coalition party greet supporters as they arrive onstage on election night in January 2013. The Likud-Beiteinu won 31 seats in the Knesset.
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Netanyahu speaks at the UN General Assembly on October 1, 2013. He accused Iranian President Hassan Rouhani of seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and described him as "a wolf in sheep's clothing, a wolf who thinks he can pull the wool over the eyes of the international community."
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In December 2014, Netanyahu called for early elections as he fired two key ministers for opposing government policy.
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Netanyahu is greeted by members of US Congress as he arrives to speak in the House chamber in March 2015. He warned that a proposed agreement between world powers and Iran was "a bad deal" that would not stop Tehran from getting nuclear weapons — but would rather pave its way to getting lots of them and leave the Jewish State in grave peril.
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Netanyahu and his family take a vacation in southern Israel in April 2015.
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Netanyahu and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talk in Berlin in October 2015.
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Netanyahu speaks to the press in Tel Aviv, Israel, in June 2016. A day earlier, two attackers identified as Palestinians opened fire at a popular food and shopping complex near the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, killing four Israelis and sending other patrons scrambling to safety.
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Netanyahu stands next to US President Barack Obama as they attend the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres in September 2016.
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Netanyahu visits Moriah College in Sydney in February 2017. It was the first time an Israeli prime minister had visited Australia.
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Netanyahu speaks to US President Donald Trump in May 2017. Trump visited Israel and the West Bank during his first foreign trip as President.
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Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, pose for a photo at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, in January 2018.
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Netanyahu, speaking at a security conference in Germany in February 2018, holds up what he claimed is a piece of an Iranian drone that was shot down after it flew over Israeli territory.
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Netanyahu, giving a speech at the Ministry of Defense in April 2018, accused Iran of "brazenly lying" over its nuclear ambitions. He said Israel had uncovered files that prove his allegation and that the Islamic republic is keeping an "atomic archive" at a secret compound. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Netanyahu's comments "childish" and "laughable."
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From left, Netanyahu sits beside senior White House adviser Jared Kushner; President Trump's daughter, Ivanka; Israeli President Reuven Rivlin; and US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin during the opening of the new US Embassy in Jerusalem in May 2018.
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Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, pose for a photo with Russian President Vladimir Putin after talks in Moscow in February 2019.
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The Netanyahus cast their votes during Israel's parliamentary elections in April 2019. The election was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu's long tenure as prime minister.
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Netanyahu greets supporters in April 2019.
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An election banner on a Jerusalem building shows Netanyahu shaking hands with US President Donald Trump. Trump remains incredibly popular in Israel — far more popular than he is in the United States.
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Netanyahu meets with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London in September 2019.
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Netanyahu and Israeli Blue and White party chief Benny Gantz reach to shake hands during a state memorial ceremony for former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his wife Leah in Jerusalem on November 10. Exit polls for a repeat general election in September failed to give either of the political rivals a majority in the new parliament.
It was a clear shot at Netanyahu, with whom Obama has had an antagonistic relationship.
The Israeli leader once memorably lectured Obama on Jewish history before the cameras in the Oval Office to the fury of the President’s aides. He overtly rooted for Republican Mitt Romney in Obama’s 2012 re-election race and used his extensive contacts on Capitol Hill in an effort to derail the central foreign policy initiative of the President’s second term: the Iran nuclear deal.
The Obama administration is leaving no doubt that they believe Trump is putting the United States on an unwise course in the Middle East. Speaking after the Security Council vote, Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, delivered a veiled warning to the Trump administration that it was about to flout decades of US foreign policy.
“The United States has been sending the message that the settlements must stop privately and publicly for nearly five decades, through the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush – and now Barack Obama,” she said.
Other White House officials aired their frustration that Trump acted so boldly on the global stage before he assumes the presidency. Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said Friday “there’s one president at a time.”
“President Obama is the President of the United States,” Rhodes said. “Trump’s team will have every opportunity after January 20th to pursue their own policies. … I’m certain they will on a number of issues.”
