UNITED NATIONS — One by one, 14 members of the U.N. Security Council spoke out against President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at an emergency meeting on Friday, some with regret and some with anger at the 15th member, the United States.
It wasn't the first time that the U.S. stood alone in defending its close ally, Israel, in the U.N.'s most powerful body. Over decades, it has vetoed many council resolutions it viewed as harmful to Israel.
But this was a rare rebuke for an action the United States took that in the eyes of the rest of the council and most of the world clearly violates U.N. resolutions and decisions that Jerusalem is an issue to be resolved by Israel and the Palestinians in peace negotiations on a two-state solution.
The Trump administration has been working on a new Mideast peace proposal and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council that the U.S. is more committed to peace "than we've ever been before — and we believe we might be closer to that goal than ever before."