Top Obama aide: Israel criticism over UN vote a ‘distraction’

by Nikita Vladimirov - 12/28/16 5:20 PM ET

Ben Rhodes: Israel accusing the US of being behind the UN resolution is a "distraction" https://t.co/xyotKBQXgq https://t.co/8AqabdxE0V

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) December 28, 2016

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes says Israel’s accusations aimed at the U.S. over last week’s United Nations condemnation of Israeli settlement building is a “distraction.”

Israel has harshly criticized the U.S. for not vetoing the U.N. Security Council’s resolution calling for an end to settlement building and intimated that the Obama administration was behind the resolution.

“All the time, we have conversations about different resolutions that are kicking around the Security Council, but we had not communicated how we would vote, we did not draft it, we did not know what the text is going to be until it was put forward,” Rhodes told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

“So lets be clear here, Jake, this is a distraction. We own the fact that we abstained from this resolution because we believe that that was the right thing,” he added.

{mosads}Rhodes said Israel’s accusation that the U.S. colluded with other foreign countries is distracting from the “real debate” about the effectiveness of the Israeli settlement policy.

“I think it’s the Israeli government that is trying to have this distraction from the real debate which is — how are their settlement policies, including building deep in the West Bank … how is that consistent with their stated policy of a pursuing a two-state solution?”

President Obama’s decision not to veto the U.N. resolution last week sparked strong criticism from Republican and some Democratic lawmakers.

The Israeli government also blasted the Obama administration for its decision to abstain from the vote and welcomed the prospect of a new foreign policy under President-elect Donald Trump.

When Tapper asked Rhodes to clarify whether the U.S. would veto any resolution that might dictate a peace solution or recognize the Palestinian state, Rhodes replied, “Yes, and we made that clear over and over.”

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