Walsh: U.N. is Rewarding Palestinians for Violence

Add Rep. Joe Walsh to the line of U.S. officials unhappy with the United Nations General Assembly's action Thursday that gives implicit recognition to Palestinian statehood.

"Once again, the United Nations has revealed its astounding anti-Israel bias," he wrote in a statement released by his office before the U.N. body's overwhelming vote. "By voting to upgrade the Palestinians' observer status, the General Assembly is rewarding the Palestinians not only for abandoning bilateral negotiations with Israel, but also for last week's unprovoked attacks on innocent Israeli citizens.  How is rewarding the Palestinians for violence a good recipe for peace?"

Walsh's pro-Israel views aren't new. Six months ago, he authored an op-ed piece for The Washington Times in which he said the only viable path to peace in the region would be for "one contiguous Israeli state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea."

Nearly a year earlier, he called out President Barack Obama in a piece in The Daily Caller, arguing the president was not Israel's friend.

In his statement Thursday, he commended Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for publicly opposing the U.N.'s vote.

Clinton, speaking at the Brookings Institution on Thursday, said the U.S. believes the resolution will "do nothing to advance the peace and the two-state solution we all want to see."

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice called the body's vote "unfortunate" and "counterproductive."

"The only way to establish such a Palestinian state and resolve all permanent-status issues is through the crucial, if painful, work of direct negotiations between the parties," she said. "The United States therefore calls upon both the parties to resume direct talks without preconditions on all the issues that divide them."

Walsh said the United States, as retribution, should cease sending aid money to the U.N. According to a Forbes report published last year, the U.S. is by far the biggest donor to the U.N., bankrolling 22 percent of the U.N.’s core budget, and roughly one-quarter of its far larger and murkier system-wide spending.

"With a $16 trillion national debt, the United States should not be contributing hundreds of millions of dollars a year to an organization that actively opposes U.S. interests and publicly vilifies U.S. allies," he said in his statement.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Contact Us