Israel threatens to give Trump 'evidence' that Obama orchestrated UN resolution

Israel has escalated its already furious war with the outgoing US administration, claiming that it has “rather hard” evidence that Barack Obama was behind a critical UN security council resolution criticising Israeli settlement building, and threatening to hand over the material to Donald Trump.

The latest comments come a day after the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, was summoned by Netanyahu to explain why the US did not veto the vote and instead abstained.

The claims have emerged in interviews given by close Netanyahu allies to US media outlets on Monday after the Obama administration denied in categorical terms the claims originally made by Netanyahu himself.

However, speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Netanyahu spokesman David Keyes said Arab sources, among others, had informed Jerusalem of Obama’s alleged involvement in advancing the resolution.

“We have rather iron-clad 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,” Keyes said.

Doubling down on the claim a few hours later the controversial Israeli ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer, went even further suggesting it had gathered evidence that it would present to the incoming Trump administration.

“We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels. If they want to share it with the American people, they are welcome to do it,” Dermer told CNN.

According to Dermer, not only did the US not stand by Israel’s side during the vote, it “was behind this ganging up on Israel at the UN”.

On Monday, Trump tweeted his displeasure with the UN, dismissing it as “just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time”.

The US has already denied the claim made by Israel in the strongest terms.

“We did not draft this resolution; we did not introduce this resolution. We made this decision when it came up for a vote,” Obama’s deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said in a statement on Friday.

But because of its opposition to settlement activity and concern for what it could mean for the region, the US “could not in good conscience veto”, he added.

On Monday, Netanyahu said that Israel's tough reaction to the United Nations Security Council resolution about settlements was intended to try and prevent additional global steps on the Israeli-Palestinian issue in coming weeks.

"Israel is a country with national pride, and we don't turn the other cheek," Netanyahu said at a ceremony launching an aid plan for northern Israel. "This is a wise, aggressive and responsible reaction, a natural response that makes it clear to the nations of the world that what took place at the UN is unacceptable to us. This response has perpetual importance even if there will be an attempt or two to hurt us in the coming month."