Israeli PM: ‘According To The UN Resolution, The Maccabees Did Not Liberate Jerusalem’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear to the world what he believes about the United Nations Security Council resolution recently adopted regarding his nation’s history in general and, more specifically, the facts of the 1967 “Six Day War.”

“According to the UN resolution, the Maccabees did not liberate Jerusalem, they occupied Palestinian territory. According to the UN resolution, the villages that they started out from in the Modi’in area, those villages and that area were ‘occupied Palestinian territory.'”

Clearly, the Israeli PM wanted to make an important point to the UN body. In the official statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, Netanyahu continued with his reaction to the UN resolution, made during a visit to the Western Wall to celebrate Chanukah.

“Of course the Palestinians arrived much later. We were in these places. We will return to these places and I ask those same countries that wish us a Happy Chanukah how they could vote for a UN resolution which says that this place, in which we are now celebrating Chanukah, is occupied territory.”

For those born after 1967, the Six Day War was when Arab leaders, after repeatedly threatening Israel with annihilation, and Egypt’s leadership pushed out the United Nation’s peacekeeping forces, made an attack upon Israel. Per the point of view on the website, Six Day War, the Israeli people and their PM see the problem in the Middle East as the decades-long push to kill them and their right to exist. Cited is a quote from a former Egyptian leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, made on May 28, 1967.

“We will not accept any… coexistence with Israel… Today the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel… The war with Israel is in effect since 1948.”

The Israeli PM possibly believed great efforts had been made towards establishing some better understanding since then. His recent remarks seem to underscore his frustration with the international body.

And so, what is Chanukah? It is also known as the Festival of Lights, and it is celebrating the historical Jewish revolt against foreign occupiers about 164 B.C.E., per the information at the Jewish Virtual Library. In his remarks, Netanyahu highlighted that his plans were previously not to attend, but he changed his mind once the UN resolution was adopted.

“I did not plan to be here this evening but in light of the UN resolution I thought that there was no better place to light the second Chanukah candle than the Western Wall.”

So, just what did the United Nations do? In its own words, the international body declared that when Israel was attacked by its neighbors in 1967, and they shocked the world by fighting back and winning against their enemies, they were in “Palestinian territory.”

“The Security Council reaffirmed this afternoon that Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had no legal validity, constituting a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders.”

Per the 2008 article on Aljazeera‘s website, “[i]t has now been 41 years since the war that changed the shape of the Middle East and the region is as divided as ever. A swift victory for Israel gave rise to the belief that the young Jewish state could not be destroyed by its powerful [neighbors].”

Taking to Twitter to voice his own reaction was US Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan.

Our unified #GOP govt will work to reverse the damage done by the Obama admin & rebuild our alliance w/ #Israel. https://t.co/jdS7mRmDSk

— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 26, 2016

From the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, designated as a terrorist group by some, they state that it welcomes the recent UN council vote and the decision which seems to favor their position on the simmering, decades-long issue. They describe themselves as victims of “Israeli occupation” for the most part, and the UN seems to have affirmed that notion.

But the Israeli PM feels differently, of course.

“The Western Wall is not occupied. The Jewish Quarter is not occupied. The other places are not occupied either. Therefore, we do not accept, nor can we accept, this resolution. We are certain of our future just as we are certain of our past.”

Israeli PM Netanyahu can be seen in the YouTube video posted recently, expressing himself on the matter of the celebration of the Maccabean revolt.

On Sunday, Israel apparently also accused the Obama Administration of “helping to create and push” the UN resolution, per the Fox News report. Israel reportedly also has obtained “ironclad information” on that accusation per the story. They quote David Keyes, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“We have rather ironclad information from sources in both the Arab world and internationally that this was a deliberate push by the United States and in fact they helped create the resolution in the first place.”

The Israeli prime minister also is said to have called President Barack Obama’s decision for U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power to abstain in that UN vote a “shameful ambush” on Israel from Obama and the White House.

[Featured Image by Carolyn Kaster/AP Images]