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Every month at the Security Council we have a session devoted to the Middle East and every month this session becomes an Israel bashing session. This has gone on month after month for decades.
This was news to me. When I arrived it was actually shocking. I came out of the first session and publicly said if we want to talk about security in the Middle East we should talk about Iran or Syria or Hezbollah, Hamas, Isis, the famine in Yemen - there are probably 10 major problems facing the Middle East and Israel doesn't have anything to do with any of them.
Just about every month since then in the Middle East session I have spoken about something other than Israel. I can't say that we'd solve the problem but I can say that several other countries have followed our lead. What used to be a monthly bashing session now at least has more balance. But we're never gonna put up with bullying.
There's one more principal I knew before I arrived at the UN; like most Americans I knew what the capital of Israel was.
To be more clear I knew that Jerusalem was is and will always be the capital of Israel. This is not something that was created by the location of an embassy; this is not something that was created by an American decision. America did not make Jerusalem Israel's capital. What President Trump did to his great credit was recognize a reality that American presidents had denied for too long. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. That's a fact and President Trump had the courage to recognize that fact when others would not.
Sometime in the future the day will come when the whole world recognizes that fact.
...You know our embassy decision caused a little bit of a stir at the United Nations in the Security Council almost exactly one year after the United States shamefully abstained when the council attacked Israel with resolution 2334. I had the great honor of casting my first American veto. When I was governor I used my veto power dozens of times. At the UN I never got to do it until the Jerusalem vote but I gotta say - it felt pretty good.
...Some people accuse us of favoritism towards Israel. First of all, there's nothing wrong with showing favoritism towards an ally, that's what being an ally is all about. But this is really not about favoritism.
In all that we're doing, whether it's the embassy decision or UNESCO or what we're doing with UNWRA -don't even get me started on that one - our approach on Israel is tied together by one major idea. The idea that runs through all of it is the simple concept that Israel must be treated like any other normal country.
We will continue to demand that Israel not be treated like some sort of temporary provisional entity. It cannot be the case that only one country in the world doesn't get to choose its capital city. It cannot be the case that the UN Human Rights Council has a standing agenda item for only one country. It cannot be the case that only one set of refugees throughout the world is counted in a way that causes the number to grow forever. It cannot be the case that in an organization with 193 countries the United Nations spends half of its time attacking only one country. We will not accept it any longer.
And you know what that demand is actually a demand for peace.The UN's bias against Israel has long undermined peace by encouraging an illusion that Israel will just simply go away. Israel's not going away. When the world recognizes that then peace becomes possible. It becomes possible because all sides will be dealing with realities not fantasies. And when we deal with realities then reasonable negotiated compromises can prevail over absolutist demands.