Rubio began his trip with a visit to the Western Wall for prayer. Even after last week's Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, a US ally, Netanyahu insisted the US-Israel relationship is solid.

"My extraordinary friend, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and his wife Jeanette, I think his visit here is a testament to the durability, the strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It's as strong and as durable as the stones of the Western Wall that we just touched," Netanyahu declared.

The UN's vote in New York on Friday was 142 to 10, with 12 abstentions, to pass the Palestinian state resolution, in diplomatic speak titled, The New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine.

The "no" votes came from Israel, the United States, Argentina, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Tonga.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, sharply criticized the vote, saying, "This one-sided declaration will not be remembered as a step toward peace, only as another hollow gesture that weakens this Assembly's credibility. This is not diplomacy. It is theatre. A carefully staged performance for headlines, not for peace. It doesn't shorten the war. It prolongs it. It does not weaken Hamas. It rewards them. It does not advance negotiations. It undermines them."

The Trump administration called the vote "a gift for Hamas," and after the UN action, a number of Israeli Knesset ministers called for the government to annex the West Bank.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin echoed the US description of the vote as a reward for terrorism and declared, "The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. Even the UN decision will not change that. It is time to apply sovereignty to Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley. This is the appropriate Zionist response." Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Chris Mitchell: CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

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