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A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 21 december 2017
Israel, US team up to block UN vote on Jerusalem

By JOSEF FEDERMAN allies in Washington and
Associated Press Western Europe and culti-
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is vate ties with developing
intensively lobbying coun- nations that have tradition-
tries around the world to ally been supportive of the
oppose a U.N. resolution Palestinians.
criticizing President Donald He has portrayed these ef-
Trump’s decision to recog- forts as both a savvy strat-
nize Jerusalem as Israel’s egy aimed at opening new
capital, Israeli officials said markets for Israeli technolo-
Wednesday. gy exports, as well as coun-
Thursday’s vote in the U.N. tering what Israel says is a
General Assembly will indi- deep-seated bias against it
cate whether Prime Min- at the United Nations.
ister Benjamin Netanyahu This year alone, Netanya-
has succeeded in his efforts hu has visited China and
to drum up new pockets of hosted India’s prime minis-
support in the developing ter, Narendra Modi. He also
world, as well as the extent has attended two summits
to which Israel and the U.S. in Africa, meeting with a
are — or are not — alone host of leaders from across
on the question of Jerusa- the continent, and in Sep-
lem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in tember, became the first
The Palestinians have Jerusalem. Israel is intensively lobbying countries around the world to oppose a U.N. resolution sitting Israeli prime minister
turned to the General As- criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Israeli to visit Latin America with
sembly after the U.S. ve- officials said Wednesday. stops in Argentina, Mexico
toed a resolution this week (Abir Sultan/Pool via AP) and Colombia.
in the Security Council call- on Thursday’s vote. U.S. net meeting in Washing- cusations of U.S. intimida- The votes cast by these
ing on Trump to rescind his Ambassador Nikki Haley ton that opponents were tion. countries will provide an
decision. While General As- threatened U.N. member likely to face a cutoff in U.S. Israel’s deputy foreign min- indication about whether
sembly votes, unlike Secu- states with possible retali- funding. “For all these na- ister, Tzipi Hotovely, said the diplomatic outreach is
rity Council resolutions, are ation if they support the tions, they take our money that the U.S. and Israel were paying off.
not legally binding, they resolution, saying Trump and then vote against us,” making “immense efforts” Votes by other key allies
serve as a barometer of takes the vote “personally” Trump said. “We’re watch- to block the resolution. with traditionally close ties
international sentiment on and the U.S. “will be taking ing those votes. Let them “We have a very, very sim- to Israel, including Ger-
key issues. names.” vote against us. We’ll save ple message: Jerusalem is many, Britain, Australia,
The U.S. and Israel are Trump went even further, a lot. We don’t care.” the capital of the Jewish Canada and smaller Eu-
both placing great weight telling reporters at a Cabi- The comments brought ac- people for 3,000 years and ropean countries like the
the capital of Israel for al- Czech Republic, the Neth-
most 70 years,” she told erlands, Poland and Hun-
Channel 10. gary, could also provide
An Israeli Foreign Ministry valuable indicators about
official confirmed the gov- support for the U.S.-Israeli
ernment was making a approach.
“very vast” lobbying cam- Many of these countries ei-
paign to minimize the reso- ther abstained or opposed
lution’s impact. a landmark 2012 vote in
He said Israel is trying to the General Assembly that
persuade allies to abstain recognized Palestine with
or even vote against it. upgraded status as a non-
He also said that Israel has member state.
asked Jewish organizations The Israeli official said a
in certain countries to lob- single vote at the U.N. on
by their governments on Thursday would not deter-
Israel’s behalf. mine the success of Israel’s
The official, speaking on diplomatic outreach. But
condition of anonymity be- he said “this is certainly part
cause he was discussing of it.”
sensitive diplomatic con- A draft of the U.N. resolu-
tacts, refused to identify tion obtained by The Asso-
which countries Israel has ciated Press calls for affirm-
approached or say how he ing that any actions that
expects them to vote. But “have altered the charac-
he said he thinks the cam- ter, status or demographic
paign will be “successful to composition of the Holy
a certain extent.” City of Jerusalem” have
In some ways, the vote is a no legal effect and must
test of Netanyahu’s foreign be rescinded. It also calls
policy. In recent years, the upon all states “to refrain
Israeli leader has invested from the establishment
great efforts to look be- of diplomatic missions” in
yond Israel’s traditional Jerusalem.q