On Wednesday night, after it became clear that the United States was ready to allow passage of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Palestinian East Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to Twitter to urge the Obama administration to veto the measure. Soon after, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted an almost verbatim message, "The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed," linking to a Facebook post. On Thursday, Egypt, which sponsored the resolution, pulled it for unclear reasons.
A senior Israeli official tells CNN that the Israeli government called Trump to ask him to put pressure on President Obama, after its own efforts failed. A Western official said Israel pressured Egypt to withdraw the resolution as well, and an official in the Trump transition told Reuters that Trump also spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the U.N. resolution. Traditionally, presidents-elect don't try to set policy. "It's unprecedented that a president-elect would pronounce on a matter of U.S. policy before he became president," said Arab-Israeli expert Aaron David Miller, "let alone say publicly that the administration should not vote for the resolution."
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