Despite disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem and tension between U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Robert Wood, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told JNS in an extended interview that he has never gotten the sense that Biden would approve an abstention, as former President Barack Obama did, on a U.N. Security Council resolution about Israeli settlements in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.
“No,” Wood said emphatically during a sit-down at U.N. headquarters in New York. “I haven’t seen that at all. The president has been very consistent in terms of our support for Israel across a range of fronts.”
“Are we heading toward a 2016 moment? No,” he told JNS.
The U.S. Congress has barred funding for the scandal-plagued U.N. Relief and Works Agency until at least March, and that ban is widely expected to be extended. President-elect Donald Trump and some of his nominees and allies in Congress have questioned whether U.S. tax dollars should continue to fund the global body.
But as the Biden administration winds down, as does Wood’s tenure in Turtle Bay, the U.S. diplomat said that he has no doubt about whether the United Nations can make itself “fit for purpose.”
“Going forward, I’ve come to believe that it is important to maintain the United Nations. If we didn’t have it we’d have to create it, just to have that forum to try to solve problems collectively,” Wood said. “The problem with the United Nations is there is a real stream of antisemitism.”
Both Wood and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, have fought “very hard” against Jew-hatred at the global body, he told JNS. He aims to continue to push the United Nations to reform from the outside after his tenure.
The more the United Nations strays from its founding ideals, “the more difficult it is and the less support it will have going forward,” Wood said. “For the remainder of this administration, we’re going to continue to push for reform in the United Nations and to make clear antisemitism throughout the U.N. system will not be tolerated by the United States.”
It is critical for the global body to address the question of “whether or not there were certain Hamas elements operating within UNRWA,” Wood told JNS. “These need to be taken seriously, and we have insisted with the United Nations that ‘you have to take it seriously, and there has to be investigations of individuals.’”
Israel and others have documented that a number of UNRWA employees participated in the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas has stated publicly that some U.N. staffers were among its terror ranks.
Unlike some of his Israeli counterparts, Wood told JNS that UNRWA is irreplaceable and is the only entity that can carry out its unique mandate. The Jewish state has passed legislation curtailing UNRWA’s presence in Jerusalem and its ability to work in Gaza. Those laws are set to take effect shortly after the Trump administration assumes power.
Some have predicted that the Jewish state will implement the legislation selectively or will scale it back. Wood predicted that “Israel is going to go forward and implement” the laws it passed.
“I think this is an opportunity for the U.N. secretariat to get on the right side of this issue with regard to the need to make sure that there aren’t terrorist elements operating within UNRWA,” he told JNS. “Many people are on different sides of it, but UNRWA reforms are important to survive and go forward.”
Syria
The U.N. Security Council had a “productive conversation” behind closed doors and reached an informal consensus on Monday about the fall of Bashar Assad, the former Syrian president, Wood told JNS.
“The view that came out of the consultations, if you want to talk about a consensus, was that this was a great moment for Syria,” Wood said, noting that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the terror group that led the lighting offensive that led to Assad’s exile, is saying the right things but will need to be judged based on its actions.
There don’t tend to be such productive closed discussions on sensitive topics, but Syria was an exception, as members of the council felt that the country’s “sovereignty, territorial integrity be respected and that the Syrian people be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
Wood’s comment that closed council meetings tend to be less productive contrasts with the theatrical nature of the council’s public meetings, particularly those about Israel and the Palestinians. Critics have increasingly said that the council fails to tackle major challenges, resorting instead to public recriminations of geopolitical rivals, with a West against East divide on full display.
“To be honest with you, the council does function,” Wood told JNS. “We do get some things done, but on the bigger issues of peace and security, sometimes it’s difficult because of the divisions of the council.”
“On certain resolutions that need to be renewed, we do manage to find the common ground even if it’s just agreeing to a technical rollover for another year,” Wood said. “Given the divisions in the council, I know it’s surprising for some that we actually do get things done, but we do.”
Since Oct. 7, Washington has grown increasingly isolated at the council for its refusal, as the other 14 members have, to call for a permanent ceasefire without the condition of Hamas releasing the hostages in Gaza.
The Biden administration has used its veto power, as a permanent member of the council, four times to thwart resolutions that would have ordered an end to the war. It abstained on a resolution in March—to great objection from Jerusalem—calling for a short-term ceasefire and phased-in hostage deal, but that resolution passed without any effect once the Ramadan holiday, upon which it was structured, ended a few weeks later.
Wood told JNS that Washington has no regrets and is willing to bear the brunt of criticism from global capitals.
“Our support for Israel is ironclad, and that comes across, of course, in our public statements but also in closed consultations,” Wood said.
“There are countries that try to take advantage of the situation,” he said, referring apparently to Russia and its allies, which consistently attack the United States at the council. “We have said for a long time that the best way to get a ceasefire in Gaza is to make sure that we have a resolution that addresses not only a ceasefire, but hostage release.”
“There are some countries on the council that don’t like that particular framework,” Wood said. “We have insisted.”
There is now “the chance to create a new possibility in the Middle East,” Wood said. “Hopefully there’ll be some positive spillover into the Gaza discussions.”
Both U.S. and Israeli officials have said recently that a ceasefire might be in reach due to Israel degrading Hezbollah and the fall of Assad’s regime. Both the terror group and the dictator were Iranian proxies, as is Hamas.
“We’ve heard so much about the so-called ‘axis of resistance.’ I think what we’re seeing now is it’s become an axis of impotence,” Wood told JNS.
JNS asked if Washington feels vindicated for saying that the council cannot force a permanent ceasefire on Israel and Hamas without it emerging from negotiations.
“‘Vindication’ is not the word, because I think we still have a long way to go,” Wood said. “I think it’s just that patient diplomacy is the only way we’re going to get to a resolution of the situation in Gaza. But I think you do have to maintain a strong position, not only diplomatically but militarily, to send a message to those who would like to see the entire Middle East unravel that, ‘No. We’re not going to let this happen.’”
Wood defended the Biden administration’s position, for which it has been widely criticized, that Israel hasn’t done enough to provide humanitarian aid to Gazan civilians. Wood said that Washington was right to demand in October that the Jewish state make some changes.
“Many will say they didn’t adhere to what we had requested, in particular, specific things that were requested, but I think in its totality, Israel did a lot,” he said. “We’re starting to see an improvement.”
(JNS)