Keith Ellison votes against GOP-backed Israel resolution
U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who had not commented on a controversial United Nations resolution that called Israel’s settlements in disputed territories “illegal,” voted Thursday night against a largely bipartisan resolution that condemned it. He did not give a floor speech explaining the vote, but in a statement, he said that he had hoped to vote on a compromise resolution but had to oppose a version that looked like a political swipe.
“Today Republicans were more interested in attacking President Obama in his last weeks as President,” said Ellison. “A two-state solution has been the longstanding bipartisan, international consensus, and I believe it is the only way to truly achieve peace. This resolution makes that goal less achievable, and that is why I cannot support it.”
Ellison was one of 76 Democrats and four Republicans who opposed the GOP resolution, which was nonbinding, and criticized by some on the right for not going further in its critical language. The Republican “no” votes came from Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.) and Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.), two paleo-conservatives who usually break from the party on foreign policy; Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), a libertarian-leaning member; and Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas conservative, who said he opposed the resolution because it did not go far enough. The Democratic votes came largely from progressives, some of them Jewish, in politically safe seats. Ellison was the first Muslim elected to Congress; Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.), who was the second, also voted “no.”
In the run-up to Thursday’s vote, Ellison had co-sponsored a Democratic amendment that would have softened some language. Without specifically condemning the recent U.N. vote, it clarified that it was the “longstanding practice of the United States to oppose and, if necessary, veto United Nations Security Council resolutions or other international efforts that seek to impose a solution to the conflict.”
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