Ted Cruz (Photo: Shutterstock)
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called for the U.S. Congress to cease funding United Nations operations until a vote the UN held Friday is reversed.
The vote in the UN officially calls Israeli settlements in “occupied Palestine” illegal, and demand that Israel “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities.”
Cruz called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Saturday evening to wish him a happy Chanukah, and to assure the leader that the United States Congress will work to reverse the decision.
Cruz joins Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, and James Lankford in voicing support for Sen. Lindsey Graham’s initiative that would move to reduce the power of the UN.
“I anticipate this vote will create a backlash in Congress against the United Nations,” Graham said. “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.”
The vote could have been vetoed by an American vote, but President Barack Obama decided to abstain from voting, and let the nearly unanimous vote pass Friday. An American vote against the measure would have killed it during the vote.
Trump quickly opposed the US’s decision to abstain in the vote, “As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations. This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position, and is extremely unfair to all Israelis,” Trump said in a statement.
