Netanyahu summons US envoy over UN rebuke of Israel

According to reports, the meeting took place on Sunday night, two days after Washington’s refusal to veto the resolution by the UN Security Council, a rare departure from America’s long-standing practice of using its veto power to shield Israel from UN condemnation.
 
"We can confirm Ambassador Shapiro will meet with PM Netanyahu this evening. We will have n‎o other details to offer," a State Department spokesperson told CNN, using diplomatic parlance to downplay the crisis.
 
Aside from Shapiro, Netanyahu also summoned representatives of most of the 14 countries backing the resolution, including permanent Security Council members Russia, China, Britain and France.
 
According to the Israeli regime’s foreign ministry, 10 of the envoys had answered the summons but Netanyahu had yet to meet with them.
 
The Israeli PM told his cabinet earlier in the day that Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry were responsible for the “shameful” vote.
 
"From the information that we have, we have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed," Netanyahu told his ministers on Sunday.
 
Tel Aviv has made it clear that it won’t be bound by Resolution 2334, which demanded an immediate end to illegal settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories like East Jerusalem al-Quds.
 
The White House has denied claims that Obama was trying to “get back” at Netanyahu by abstaining from the vote.
 
“Bipartisan policy of the US government for decades has been to oppose settlements. The reason we took this step is because for years, we've seen an acceleration in the growth of these settlements. And frankly, if these current trends continue, the two-state solution is going to be impossible,” Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said Friday.
 
Following the Security Council measure, Netanyahu said he was looking forward to working with US President-elect Donald Trump, who personally intervened to keep the measure from coming up to a vote. 
 
More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.