Middle East: A Harsh Rebuke for Israel

The U.S. backs a U.N. resolution criticizing its ally

When the time came, she raised her hand so tentatively that for a moment there was some doubt in the chamber as to how she was going to vote. But Jeane Kirkpatrick, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, did indeed vote yes last week, thereby joining in one of the harshest United Nations rebukes of Israel that the U.S. had ever supported.

Kirkpatrick's hesitancy in the Security Council reflected the ambivalent approach of the Reagan Administration toward the problem of censuring Israel for the...