{"id":298627,"date":"2026-02-19T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/298627\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T05:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T05:30:10","slug":"gideon-saar-responds-to-yvette-coopers-criticism-at-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/298627\/","title":{"rendered":"Gideon Sa’ar responds to Yvette Cooper\u2019s criticism at UN"},"content":{"rendered":"

A debate sparked between Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar<\/a> and British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper<\/a> during a UN Security Council session on the Middle East on Wednesday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The confrontation began when Cooper criticized the Jewish people’s right to their land and questioned the decisions made by Israel\u2019s cabinet in her open remarks.<\/p>\n

The UN session, called by the UK as part of its presidency of the Security Council, saw escalating tensions as Cooper attacked Israeli policies in the West Bank<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She specifically highlighted “settler violence” and called for stronger Palestinian leadership. In response, Sa’ar presented a historical map.<\/p>\n

Sa’ar responded to Cooper’s claims by paying honour to Britain\u2019s long-standing support for the State of Israel, referencing pivotal moments such as the Balfour Declaration<\/a>, Winston Churchill\u2019s visit, and the Commonwealth\u2019s role in supporting the establishment of a Jewish state.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Balfour Declaration<\/p>\n

He addressed Cooper directly, saying, “In 1917, the British government published the historic Balfour Declaration to establish a national home for the Jewish people in our land.”<\/p>\n

Sa’ar continued by citing Winston Churchill\u2019s 1921 visit to Israel, reinforcing the claim that Jews deserve a national home.<\/p>\n

“Where else could it be but this land, with which for over 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?” he echoed Churchill’s question.<\/p>\n

He posed another pointed question to the British representative: “In 1922, the predecessor of the UN, the Commonwealth Council, tasked Britain with re-establishing a Jewish national home. Madam President, what have you left of the lofty and historical tradition of Balfour and Churchill?”<\/p>\n

Following the debate, Sa’ar condemned Cooper’s arguments, labeling them part of a “hypocritical obsession against Jewish presence in the heart of our tiny land.”<\/p>\n

He contended, “The claim that Israelis cannot live in Judea and Samaria (The West Bank) isn’t just inconsistent with international law and Britain\u2019s own Balfour Declaration, but it is also morally distorted. How can Jews live in London, Paris, or New York, but not in the cradle of our civilization?\u201d<\/p>\n

The tensions in the room escalated further when Sa’ar addressed the Russian ambassador to the UN, saying, “It was amusing to hear the representative of the Russian Federation talk about law, international law, occupation, land expansion, and peaceful resolutions.<\/p>\n

“I must admit, I had to restrain myself from laughing out loud,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A debate sparked between Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper during a UN…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[130393,5355,65,85,46,43,4497,119022],"class_list":{"0":"post-298627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-balfour-declaration","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-gideon-saar","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-united-nations","15":"tag-winston-churchill"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}