Leaked Doc Claims US Informed Palestinians of UN Abstention in Advance

Israel Insisted US 'Colluded' With Palestinians on Vote

In the course of their outrage at the UN Security Council resolution against settlement expansion in the occupied territories, Israel has repeatedly claimed evidence the US “colluded” with the UN, and with the Palestinians, on the resolution. Today, we got our first glimpse of what amounts to “evidence.”

An Egyptian newspaper has published what it calls “leaked documents,” believed to be from the Egyptian government, which say that Secretary of State John Kerry met with a Palestinian delegation 10 days before the UN vote, and told them the US would not veto the resolution “if its wording was balanced.”

This appears well short of “collusion,” as media reports in the weeks leading up to the vote were all saying materially the same thing, that the Obama Administration was likely to withhold the veto if a resolution was introduced. Despite this “leak” being far from shocking, the State Department denied that it was true.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer has also claimed that there is evidence the US played a role in choosing the language of the documentation, though it isn’t clear if this is a separate allegation, or if Israel just views a US call for “balanced” wording as a plot to compose the document in a balanced way.

Either way, the evidence doesn’t appear to amount to much in the way of US “collusion,” and that the White House has already promised to veto anything in the future, irrespective of wording, means the US abstention was largely meaningless.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.