Ben Rhodes: Obama Admin Threw Israel Under Bus at U.N. to Pressure Jewish State

EXCERPT:

RHODES: "I want to approach this from two directions. The first will be this question of pressure and then the next question I have is more about affirmation. But on the pressure side — you know, you make a good point, Senator, which is that oftentimes when even the degree of pressure that President Obama pursued, which is largely rhetorical, can invite some retrenchment in Israeli politics or resistance to it. At the same time, given that direction of status quo, the question becomes, what are the levers available? You know, Tommy talked about assistance. Another one that we wrestled with in the Obama Administration was the U.N. process. And at the very end of the Administration, we abstained on a resolution essentially, you know, critiquing Israeli settlement construction along the same lines of as what we would say in our own words, also condemned incitement on the Palestinian side.”