New York, N.Y., December 22, 2016 . . . Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations today welcomed the decision to postpone consideration by the Security Council of a one-sided condemnatory resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli issue.
Stephen M. Greenberg, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO, of the Conference of Presidents said, “The draft resolution, promoted by the Palestinians, and backed by the Arab League, that was presented to the UN Security Council last night was ill-conceived and ill-timed. We are pleased it will not be voted on today in the Security Council and hope the resolution will be withdrawn completely.
We appreciate the efforts that led to the postponement and hope the resolution will be withdrawn completely. In particular, we recognize the efforts of President el-Sisi of Egypt who instructed his delegation, that sits on the Security Council as the representative of the Arab League, to postpone the vote that had been scheduled for 3:00 pm today.
Many people worked behind the scenes to prevent the resolution from coming up, including officials in the current and incoming administrations and Members of Congress.
The Conference of Presidents and our member organizations have been working continuously on this issue for many weeks. In our discussions with U.S. officials, as well as diplomats at the UN and leaders in foreign capitals, we expressed concerns about the content and timing of the resolution.
This measure would have been a further blow to the chances for peace and was yet another Palestinian maneuver to avoid direct negotiations, which is the only true path to a meaningful peace process.
We hope the Palestinians will finally halt their repeated efforts to utilize the UN and other international bodies as a weapon against Israel and to avoid the responsibilities inherent in direct negotiations.
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