Ambassador Bolton on the Greta Show. Photo: Screenshot.

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton blamed the Obama administration for last week’s approval by the UN of a Palestinian state.

“This is a reflection of an ongoing failure by the Obama administration to take this issue seriously,” Bolton told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren Thursday night.  At last week’s General Assembly vote, current Amb. Susan Rice opposed the initiative, but Bolton said the president should have taken decisive steps in October to block the impending move.

“[The vote] never should have been. Palestine is not a state,” Bolton said. “That’s a fact. And when the UN engages in this kind of activity, it just shows a real lack of administration commitment to stop it from happening.”

Bolton said the administration should have followed the model of President George H.W. Bush, and then-Secretary of State James Baker, 20 years ago in fending off a similar initiative to change the Palestine Liberation Organization’s status from an “entity” to a “non-member state.”

“We’ve been through this before. We did this 20 years ago and defeated the Palestinians,” Bolton said, according to a transcript provided by Newsmax. “And this is how we did it. Secretary of State Jim Baker issued a statement saying he would recommend to the president that the United States make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any change in the PLO’s status as an observer organization.

“If the administration had simply done what Jim Baker did 20 years ago, this thing would have been deader than a doornail,” Bolton added.

Since the UN vote, Israel has responded by announcing the confiscation of more than NIS400 million in tax revenues slated for the Palestinian Authority, and authorized the construction of 3,000 housing units in the greater Jerusalem area.

A video of Bolton’s Fox News interview can be viewed below: