President Donald Trump made history by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Illustrative. (Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen)
One day after United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley threatened to be “taking names” of who votes against them at the UN General Assembly on Thursday on the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, US President Donald Trump made it abundantly clear what that will mean. It will cost someone money—a lot of money.
“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us, we’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” said Trump on Wednesday in comments posted to the White House website.
Trump said he “liked” Haley’s previous comments regarding the nations that he said “take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly.” On Tuesday, Haley had tweeted a similar warning, saying on Twitter that “at the UN we’re always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don’t expect those we’ve helped to target us. On Thurs there’ll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.”
Following Trump’s endorsement, Haley was back on Twitter quoting the president’s comment about saving “a lot” on international funding. The United States provides billions of dollars in foreign aid—the 2018 US State Department budget request asked for $5.3 billion in humanitarian aid alone. In 2016, the State Department budged almost $1 billion in “Assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia”, according to the State Department website.
Israel, meanwhile, is looking forward to supporting the US position on Jerusalem. “Standing together with the #US at the @UN is a great honor. We may face hatred and hypocrisy but our strength is in our values , in truth and history. #Jerusalem has been the center of our identity for over 3000 years, and no #UN vote can change that,” tweeted Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon on Wednesday.
The Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yuval Rotem, felt similarly and had a different kind of warning on voting against Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Rotem tweeted that the UN cannot change the fact that Jerusalem “is & will always be the capital” of Israel and the Jewish people. He continued, “Any UN resolution that denies that will reward rejectionism and push peace further away.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, December 20, 2017)