Obama's former Middle East envoy says the U.S. should have VETOED anti-Israel UN resolution because his presidency is almost over and Trump should set his own policy
George Mitchell said the Obama administration should have stood aside and let Donald Trump set his own Middle East Policy
Mitchell was President Obama's Special Envoy for Middle East Peace
Friday vote in the UN Security Council condemned Israel for building West Bank settlements, and the U.S. abstained instead of exercising its traditional veto
Mitchell defended the move in principle but said 'it would have been wise, I think, to defer this if possible' until Trump took office, 'and, if not, to veto it'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed the White House was behind the entire effort
The U.S. admits Obama instructed his UN ambassador to sit out the vote and let it pass 14-0
By David Martosko, US Political Editor and James Wilkinson For Dailymail.com
President Barack Obama's former Special Envoy for Middle East Peace said Tuesday that the United States should have vetoed an anti-Israel resolution in the United Nations Security Council on Friday rather than abstaining from the vote and letting it pass.
George Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader, told MSNBC that while Obama's policy is sound, he should have deferred to incoming president Donald Trump and stayed out of the fight over Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
'President Obama would have been wise to veto this resolution,' Mitchell said. 'Not because of the policy implications but because of the timing and the circumstance that it leads to with respect to trying to get the parties together.'
He defended the merits of Obama's decision to side with Palestinians and other adversaries of Israel, however.
He said it: Former Obama administration Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell told MSNBC that the White House should have either delayed Friday's anti-Israel vote in the United Nations Security Council, or vetoed it
Unanimous: The Security Council vote passed Friday with a 14-0 vote when the US declined to veto it, breaking a long tradition of protecting its most steadfast Middle East ally
'Every American president since the beginning of settlements 50 years ago – from Johnson and Nixon, down through [George W.] Bush and Obama – has opposed Israel's policy on settlements,' he said.
Congress hasn't always agreed. American lawmakers have a history of bipartisan cooperation in pushing for the U.S. embassy to be relocated to Jerusalem, for instance, a dramatic shift that Trump has pledged to begin quickly in 2017.
And in March a Republican-controlled Congress passed a trade bill that defined Israel for the first time as including Arab territories that the international community considers 'occupied' territory.
The move was an add-in to 'fast track' trade authority sought by Obama, and meant to provide incentives for countries to abandon financially punishing boycotts of products made in Israel.
Obama signed the bill but declared in what's known as a 'signing statement' that his administration would choose to ignore that provision of the law.
Mitchell seemed to defend the current president's approach on Tuesday, saying claims that Obama failed to 'protect Israel' last week are 'completely false'
'I think much is being made of it that is false,' he said, 'but it would have been wise, I think, to defer this if possible and, if not, to veto it.'
History: Mitchell was Obama's chosen Middle East envoy and held talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and also with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak (pictured at right in September 2009)
Furious: Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu ranted Sunday that the US had orchestrated a UN resolution that denounced the illegal occupation of the West Bank by Israeli settlers
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already accused the Obama administration of not just abandoning its customary UN veto, but orchestrating the UN Security Council resolution that declared Israeli settlements in the West Bank are criminal in nature.
Netanyahu summoned the ambassadors of ten of the countries that voted in favor of the resolution to his weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.
'From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,' he told them in Hebrew, according to NPR.
The Israeli leader's pointed venting at the ambassadorial gathering – which included envoys from Security Council permanent members Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France – continued in English.
'Over decades, American administrations and Israeli governments had disagreed about settlements, but we agreed that the Security Council was not the place to resolve this issue,' he said.
Rabbi draws parallels between the Obama administration and... California synagogue front smeared with feces in... The Israeli soldiers with hot weaponry: Meet the young women... Donald Trump says United Nations is 'just a club for people...
'We knew that going there would make negotiations harder and drive peace further awayAnd, as I told John Kerry on Thursday, friends don't take friends to the Security Council. I'm encouraged by the statements of our friends in the United States, Republicans and Democrats alike.
'They understand how reckless and destructive this UN resolution was, they understand that the Western Wall isn't occupied territory.'
Netanyahu also summoned the US ambassador for a meeting – a rare move by an Israeli leader.
The resolution, which condemned the occupation by Israeli settlers of parts of the West Bank that were seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast War, passed 14-0 on Friday when U.S. ambassador to the UN Samantha Power obeyed a White House directive not to cast a vote.
Most of the world opposes the settlements, which come at the expense of Palestinians living in the occupied territories, but the US has traditionally used its veto to block UN condemnation.
However, on Friday the US abstained for the first time – marking a massive break from its long-standing policy, which is to hold back on official condemnation for fear of upsetting a possible two-state solution.
The result could restrict Israel's negotiations in future peace talks, and Israel also fears economic sanctions.
Orders: US ambassador Samantha Power (center) was ordered to abstain from voting by Obama, but the White House says Egypt organized the resolution with Palestinians
Speaking to Fox News, Netanyahu's spokesman, David Keyes, said: 'We have rather ironclad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place.'
The White House has confirmed that Obama told US Ambassador Samantha Power to abstain in the vote.
But in a statement the White House denied that the US had a hand in creating the resolution.
'The Egyptians, in partnership with the Palestinians, are the ones who began circulating an earlier draft of the resolution,' said White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
'The Egyptians are the ones who moved it forward on Friday. And we took the position that we did when it was put to a vote.'
Angry: Netanyahu summoned the ambassadors of ten of the voting countries, along with the US ambassador, for meetings. He cited unnamed sources as evidence of an alleged US plot
Israel has also recalled its ambassadors to New Zealand and Senegal for discussions and cancelled a visit to Israel by Senegal's foreign minister that was planned for January.
Trump has campaigned on behalf of Israel last week, reportedly after being contacted by Israel.
He later tweeted that the UN vote had made a peaceful solution to conflicts in the area more difficult, and that 'Things will be different after Jan 20.'
However, given the world's widespread opposition to the settlements, it will be practically impossible for Trump to reverse the decision.
Israel accuses Obama administration of helping craft, push UN censure | Fox News
Obama's Middle East envoy says US should have VETOED anti-Israel UN resolution