Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton blamed the Obama administration for the U.N.’s decision last week to grant the Palestinian Authority upgraded states as a non-member observer state.
“This is a reflection of an ongoing failure by the Obama administration to take this issue seriously,” Bolton told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren Thursday night.
While the current U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, opposed the initiative, Bolton said the president should have taken decisive steps in October to block the impending move.
"Palestine is not a state," Bolton said. "That's a fact. And when the U.N. engages in this kind of activity, it just shows a real lack of administration commitment to stop it from happening."
Bolton said the Obama administration should have followed the model set by former President George H.W. Bush, and then-Secretary of State James Baker, 20 years ago in blocking a similar initiative to upgrade the Palestine Liberation Organization’s status from an “entity” to a “non-member state,” the same status held by the Vatican.
“We’ve been through this before. We did this 20 years ago and defeated the Palestinians,” Bolton said, according to a transcript provided by Newsmax.
“And this is how we did it. Secretary of State Jim Baker issued a statement saying he would recommend to the president that the United States make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any change in the PLO’s status as an observer organization.”
“If the administration had simply done what Jim Baker did 20 years ago, this thing would have been deader than a doornail,” Bolton added.
The former ambassador concluded by warning that Israel should seriously prepare for subsequent PA efforts to charge Israel with “war crimes” and other grievances at the International Criminal Court and other such bodies, as the upgraded status allows.
Bolton’s remarks came prior to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to approve 3,000 additional Jewish homes in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, including the disputed 5 km (3 mi) long area between Jerusalem and the suburb of Maale Adumim known as “E1”.