Eli Lake, Columnist

Obama Fulfills His Prophecy on Israeli Settlements

Friday's U.N. vote deepened Israel's isolation. That's what the White House wanted.

December 27, 2016 at 2:03 PM EST

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

A lot of history.
Photographer: THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

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The way the White House tells it, the U.S. had no choice. For eight years, President Barack Obama has been pleading with Israel to stop building settlements. But they didn't listen. So reluctantly, the president instructed his United Nations ambassador to abstain from a Security Council resolution that affirmed for the first time in 36 years that every Jewish home in East Jerusalem and the West Bank was a "flagrant violation of international law."

QuickTake Israeli Settlements

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