Conaway Votes to Condemn Obama's U.N. Action Against Israel

SAN ANGELO, TX - Thursday, Congressman Mike Conaway (TX-11) voted to pass H.Res. 11 – to Reject the Anti-Israel UN Resolution. H. Res. 11, which passed 342-80, calls for a repeal of the United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel for Israeli settlements in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall.

“Israel is our strongest ally in an increasingly unstable region, and to allow a resolution to pass the United Nations Security Council that states that Judaism’s holiest sites are an ‘occupied territory’ is absolutely unacceptable,” said Congressman Conaway. “The United States has a long history of voting down anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations Security Council; in fact, the United States has vetoed 42 anti-Israel resolutions since 1972. Unfortunately, President Obama and his Administration have chosen to ignore the special relationship between the United States and Israel, which is reprehensible. We must continue our nation’s long tradition of standing with Israel.”

The House resolution condemned the Obama Administration’s abstention from a United Nations Security Council vote condemning Israeli settlements. In the past, the U.S. has protected Israel from vetoing resolutions where other nations in the U.N. use that body to, what some believe, bully the State of Israel. A veto by the U.S. would have killed the U.N. action. President Barrack Obama allowed the U.N. resolution to pass. 

“I think allowing governments to bully Israel in the U.N. is a mistake, no matter who’s in power,” said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), a co-sponsor of the resolution was quoted in The Hill.

At issue in the U.N. resolution was maintaining the status quo that will one day allow for a “Two State Solution,” a policy set forth by the most U.S. administrations, including Obama’s, in hope of eventually settling the Israeli-Palestinian. In other words, allowing newer Israeli settlements to exist, and allowing Israelis to build more settlements in contested lands obscures the pathway to peace under the Two State concept.

Voting for the resolution, the U.S. House, on the third day of the 115^th Congress, were all but 76 Democrats. There are 194 Democrats and 241 Republicans in this congress.

U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334 called for Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.”

Opponents of the resolution, including President-Elect Donald Trump, believe that Israel should be allowed to enter negotiations with the Palestinians without any pre-conditions imposed by an outside body like the U.N. On the pro-Israel side, many believe Israel should be able to use the new settlements as leverage in any future negotiations.