Kerry: We’ll block Palestinian UN motion until after Israel’s vote

US Secretary of State John Kerry told European envoys, quoted by Foreign Policy, that Washington would not permit the passage of any UN Security Council resolution on the Middle East until after Israel’s March elections. Speaking at an annual luncheon with 28 EU UN ambassadors, Kerry cautioned that any Security Council action would strengthen the hands of Israel’s right wing and hardliners, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home Party. The US official said Tzipi Livni (joint leader of opposition Labor) had “told him that such a text [as demanded by the Palestinians to set a two-year deadline for Israel’s withdrawal] if imposed by the international community would reinforce Netanyahu and the hardliners as well as the hardliners in Palestine.