U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a Dec. 6 speech that U.S. President Donald Trump wanted to cut funding to countries that voted against a United Nations that condemned Hamas as a terror group.
The resolution received 87 votes in favor, 57 against and 33 abstentions on Dec. 6, falling short of the two-thirds threshold needed for it to pass.
“I’m not gonna tell you what I told him,” Haley added.
Haley praised the 87 countries that voted for the resolution as a sign of “a new day at the U.N.”
According to the Gatestone Institute’s Bassam Tawil, the fact that Hamas viewed the resolution’s failure as an indicator that “the resistance is a legitimate right guaranteed by all international laws and conventions,” including the use of “armed struggle,” shows that Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have been emboldened by the failed resolution.
“What Hamas is telling the U.N. and the rest of the world is: ‘Now that you have refused to brand us terrorists, we have the right to launch all forms of terrorist attacks and kill as many Jews as possible,’ ” wrote Tawil. “Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders are, in fact, threatening not only to continue, but also to step up their terrorist attacks on Israel.”