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Israel to Withdraw Bid for UN Security Council Seat

The United Nations Security Council sits to meet on North Korea after their latest missile test, at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, US, September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney
The United Nations Security Council sits to meet on North Korea after their latest missile test, at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, US, September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney
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Israel to Withdraw Bid for UN Security Council Seat

The United Nations Security Council sits to meet on North Korea after their latest missile test, at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, US, September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney
The United Nations Security Council sits to meet on North Korea after their latest missile test, at the U.N. headquarters in New York City, US, September 4, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney

Israel is considering whether to withdraw its bid for a seat on the United Nations Security Council that it had hoped to secure for the first time this June, after majority of European countries rejected its candidacy, according to diplomatic sources in Tel Aviv.

Israeli government had been hoping the new US administration led by President Donald Trump and the US ambassador Nikki Haley will increase its chances in securing the seat.

Europe objected the proposal and intends to nominate Germany or Belgium.

Elections at UN’s bodies are done according to regional affiliations. Between 1949 and 2000, Israel belonged to the “Asia-Pacific Group”, where an Arab majority automatically opposed any effort on Israel’s behalf to serving on the council.

In 2000, the UN agreed to shift Israel into the “Western Europe and Other Group”, allowing it to contend for one of the two spots reserved on the council for the bloc. Back then, European countries promised the Prime Minister Ehud Barak that Israel will be elected later for the membership of the council in the name of this group, especially after he promised to achieve peace with Palestinians.

Security Council has five permanent members and ten temporary members that are replaced every two years.

In order to win a seat on the influential council, a nation must get the support of two-thirds of the UN General Assembly. Israel's group include 28 countries and is represented currently by Sweden and Holland, whose memberships end in 2018.

Currently, three countries are competing for the two seats: Germany, Belgium, and Israel. These countries rejected diplomatic efforts by Israeli representatives asking that they withdraw their candidacy.

To win a seat, a country must receive at least two-thirds of the votes in the UN General Assembly, but it is known that most UN members reject attempts to promote Israel for its policies and activities against Palestinians.

Elections are set to take place next June and Israeli government backed by the US administration began a campaign to increase its chances. However, their attempts were futile and officials at Israeli foreign ministry admit that their chances are low and there is not enough time left to achieve their goal.

Although Israel has not officially announced its withdrawal, it is aware that its chances of winning the seat are low.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet finalized his decision on the matter, but the Foreign Ministry has expressed a wish to quit the race because of the improbability of a win, according to a senior official familiar with the matter.

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Israeli Minister Says Army Applying Lessons from Gaza in West Bank Operation

Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)
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Israeli Minister Says Army Applying Lessons from Gaza in West Bank Operation

Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)
Israeli soldiers run to take position in Jenin camp during the second day of an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin, 22 January 2025. (EPA)

Israel's defense minister said on Tuesday forces were applying lessons learned in Gaza as a major operation continued in Jenin which the military said was aimed at countering Iranian-backed armed groups in the volatile West Bank city.

A military spokesperson declined to give details but said the operation was "relatively similar" to but in a smaller area than one last August, in which hundreds of Israeli troops backed by drones and helicopters raided Jenin and other flashpoint cities in the occupied West Bank.

It was the third major incursion by the Israeli army in less than two years into Jenin, a longtime major stronghold of armed groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which said its forces were fighting Israeli troops.

At least four Palestinians were wounded on Tuesday, after 10 were killed a day earlier, Palestinian health services said, and residents reported constant gunfire and explosions.

Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said the fighters' increasing use of roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices were a particular focus of the operation, which included armored bulldozers to tear up roads in the refugee camp adjacent to the city.

As the operation continued, many Palestinians left their homes in the camp, a crowded township for descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war of Israel's creation.

"Thank God, we were at home, we went out and asked an ambulance to take us out," said a woman who gave her name as Um Mohammad.

Before the raid, which came two weeks after a shooting attack blamed by Israel on gunmen from Jenin, roadblocks and checkpoints had been thrown up across the West Bank in an effort to slow down movement across the territory.

As the raid began, Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces pulled out after having conducted a weeks-long operation to try to reassert control over the refugee camp, dominated by Palestinian factions that are hostile to the PA, which exercises limited governance in parts of the West Bank.

The operation came just two days after the launch of a ceasefire deal in Gaza and exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, with Israeli troops pulling back from their positions in many areas of the enclave.

LEARNING FROM GAZA

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Jenin raid marked a shift in the military's security plan in the West Bank and was "the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza".

"We will not allow the arms of the Iranian regime and radical Sunni Islam to endanger the lives of (Israeli) settlers (in the West Bank) and establish a terrorist front east of the state of Israel," he said in a statement.

Israel's campaign in Gaza, following the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by bands of Hamas-led gunmen, has left much of the coastal enclave in ruins after 15 months of bombardment. The military has said it has refined its urban warfare tactics in the light of its experience in Gaza, but Shoshani declined to provide details of how such lessons were being applied in Jenin.

Israel considers Palestinian armed groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad that are backed by Iran as part of a multifront war waged by an axis that includes Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Newly installed US President Donald Trump has appointed a string of senior officials with close ties to the settler movement, and his return to the White House has been welcomed by hardline pro-settler ministers who have pledged to expand settlement building in the West Bank.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war. Most countries deem Israel's settlements on territory taken in war to be illegal. Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.