UN set for showdown as US weighs abstention on Israel vote

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council prepared yesterday for perhaps its biggest vote in recent history as the United States weighed abstaining from a resolution that would condemn Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Behind the scenes, US and Israeli officials exchanged surprisingly sharp words for allies.

A day after Egypt suddenly postponed the showdown, the Palestinian mission to the United Nations said the council would take up the matter again on yesterday. The 15-nation body was huddled in closed consultations and officials indicated a vote could take place immediately afterward.

The possible condemnation has led to frantic diplomacy in capitals around the world for the last couple of days.

American officials indicated the Obama administration would have been prepared to let the resolution pass in a sharp break with past US diplomatic practice. Israeli officials said they were aware of such plans and turned to President-elect Donald Trump for support. Trump sent a tweet urging President Barack Obama to exercise America's veto power. Egypt then pulled its resolution, with US officials saying the action occurred under fierce Israeli pressure. Israeli officials then accused Obama of colluding with the Palestinians in a "shameful move" against the Jewish state. Washington denied the charge.

At issue is a resolution that would directly criticize Israel's construction of Jewish settlements in lands the Palestinians hope to include in their future state. Most of the world is united in opposition to Israel on the question. The primary holdout at the UN has been the United States, which see settlements as illegitimate but has traditionally used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to block such resolutions on the grounds that Israeli-Palestinian disputes should be addressed through negotiation.

If the vote proceeds and the draft resolution is left unchanged, the US may take a different tack.

Officials said the UN ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, was already working on a possible "explanation of vote" that she would read out afterward. They said the US hasn't shifted its position in the last day, meaning an abstention would still be the likely course of action. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

A US abstention would be a stunning culmination of years of icy relations between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And it would put Obama in open conflict with Trump on a key foreign policy matter at a time when they've been promising a smooth transition.

On yesterday, an Israeli official said Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry "secretly cooked up with the Palestinians an extreme anti-Israeli resolution behind Israel's back, which would be a tail wind for terror and boycotts and effectively make the Western Wall occupied Palestinian territory." The official, who wasn't authorized to be quoted by name, also praised Trump for heading off the resolution on Thursday.

Israel knew the US was coordinating an "ambush" with the Palestinians, said another Israeli official, who similarly demanded anonymity.

A senior Obama administration official fired back, saying Egypt championed the resolution "from the start" and crediting "other Security Council members, not the United States," for the renewed push on yesterday. The resolution is now sponsored by New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said she is "confident it will pass."

Palestinians "are not subject to deals among governments," Ashrawi said.

The US, along with the Palestinians and nearly all of the international community, considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem obstacles to peace. Some 600,000 Israelis live in the two territories, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

Trump has signaled he will be far more sympathetic to Israel. His campaign platform made no mention of the establishment of a Palestinian state, a core policy objective of Democratic and Republican presidents over the past two decades. He also has vowed to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, potentially putting the US at odds with the Palestinians and almost the entire remainder of the international community. Trump's pick for ambassador to Israel, Jewish-American lawyer David Friedman, is a donor and vocal supporter of the settlements.

Israeli diplomats believe they were misled by the US during a meeting last week between high-ranking Israeli and Obama administration officials in which the US side offered reassurances about its efforts to support Israel but declined to explicitly state that the US would veto such a resolution if it came up. The Israelis told their counterparts that "friends don't take friends to the Security Council," the official said.

The Egyptian-sponsored resolution had demanded that Israel halt settlement activities in occupied territories claimed by the Palestinians and declared that existing settlements "have no legal validity." It is little different in tone or substance from Obama's view.

The resolution would be more than symbolic. While it didn't demand sanctions on Israel, its language could have hindered Israel's negotiating position in future peace talks. And given the widespread international opposition to settlements, it would have been nearly impossible for Trump to reverse it.

Egypt said the telephone call between Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Trump included an agreement to give the incoming US administration a chance to try and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It took place several hours after the Egyptian postponement.

Palestinians said they were blindsided by the action of Egypt, the the first Arab country to make peace with Israel. The two countries have tightened security ties in recent years in a shared struggle against Islamic militants.