• A Tweet from Trump and pressure on Egyptians: How Israel blocked UN vote on settlements

    - Israel News - Haaretz.com
    http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.760827

    After a 15-hour political drama Thursday, Israel succeeded in deflecting, if only temporarily, a United Nations Security Council vote on a draft resolution against the settlements.
    Pressure from the Prime Minister’s Bureau on Cairo, which proposed the resolution, requests for assistance and coordination from President-elect Donald Trump and contacts at the UN and in several world capitals caused Egypt to retract its request for a snap vote.
    Nevertheless it was made clear to the participants in a meeting of the security-diplomatic cabinet last night that the crisis is ongoing and the possibility remains that a vote will still be held in the next few days.
    The saga began on Wednesday night, when the Egyptian delegation to the UN distributed copies of its draft resolution against the settlements to the members of the Security Council and requested that it be brought to the vote on Thursday at 10 P.M. Israel time.
    Israel had operated over the past few months on the assumption that a resolution on Israel-Palestine would be brought to the council before the end of President Barack Obama’s term on January 20 next year.
    Israel’s focus was on an Israel-Palestinian resolution and a resolution from New Zealand, but it was not expected to happen this week.