On Dec. 15, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his displeasure with the Palestinian leadership’s decision to ask that the UN Security Council instruct Israel to end its occupation of the territories within two years. He lashed out at the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) threat that it would apply to join the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Upon emerging from his Rome meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, at which he demanded that the United States exercise its veto power over such a Security Council resolution, Netanyahu warned that Israel would not ignore such unilateral Palestinian moves. In a phone conversation with French President Francois Hollande, Netanyahu argued that going to the UN was “the opposite of a peace agreement,” adding that such a move “would cancel any future negotiations and result in deterioration.”