Related Link Actually, This UN Resolution Is Much Better Than 71 Others the U.S. Allowed To Pass

The Israeli government, and Republicans in Congress, have expressed outrage over the Obama administration’s decision to allow adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemns Israel’s settlement construction.

These critics are portraying the U.S. move to abstain from the vote on Israel’s settlement activity—rather than using its veto power—as a last symbolic blow from outgoing President Barack Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

They also depict it as a break from the American precedent of shielding its longtime ally from action at the United Nations.

But other American administrations regularly have abstained or supported U.N. resolutions critical of Israeli policy.

Indeed, until this latest resolution adopted Friday, Obama had been the only president not to let a resolution critical of Israeli policy be adopted by in the Security Council.

“Virtually every U.S. administration in the last 30 to 40 years has allowed a resolution critical of Israel, particularly of settlements, to pass through abstention,” Jeremy Pressman, a University of Connecticut professor who studies the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, said in an interview with The Daily Signal.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said the U.N. has a “disproportionate” volume of resolutions against Israel, which he believes has “foiled the ability of the U.N. to fulfill its role effectively.”