Senate Leaders Back Bipartisan Bill Condemning UN Resolution Against Israeli Settlements
by JNS.org
JNS.org – The top leaders in the US Senate — Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) and Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — have announced their support for a resolution condemning the recent United Nations Security Council resolution that called on Israel to halt settlement activity.
The bill, introduced by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) and Ben Cardin (D-Md), calls for UN Security Council Resolution 2334 — which the Obama administration refused to veto, allowing the measure to pass — to be “repealed or fundamentally altered,” while also rejecting any efforts by outside bodies, including the UN, to impose Israeli-Palestinian conflict solutions. In addition, the Senate resolution calls on the Obama administration to take “no action” at the Jan. 15 Paris conference on Mideast peace that “imposes an agreement or parameters on the parties.”
“Since the days of ‘Zionism is racism,’ the UN has been a fervently anti-Israel body and, unfortunately, that bias has never diminished. Knowing this, past administrations — both Democrat and Republican — have protected Israel from the vagaries of this biased institution. Unfortunately, by abstaining on United Nations Resolution 2334, this administration has not followed in that path,” Schumer said in a statement.
“This Senate resolution reaffirms that peace must come through direct negotiations in order to achieve a sustainable two-state solution,” he added.
Twenty US senators have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.