In the waning days of his administration, President Barack Obama declined to veto the resolution and allowed it to pass at the United Nations, a striking departure from the past eight years of U.S. policy.Although the U.S. opposes the settlements, it has traditionally used its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council to block resolutions condemning Israel, saying that disputes between Israel and the Palestinians must be resolved through negotiations.US Ambassador Samantha Power said the text "reflects the facts on the ground" and is consistent with longstanding US policy toward Israel. "The United States has been sending the message that the settlements must stop, privately and publicly, for nearly five decades," she said.Power said the settlement issue had grown more urgent, undermining Israel's security and "the very viability of the two-state solution." Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, the number of West Bank settlers has grown by 355,000 and now exceeds 590,000, she said.The US abstention did not in any way diminish the US' "steadfast support of Israel's security", Power said, noting that the Obama administration had provided "unprecedented" support to Israel, such as a recent 38-billion-dollar arms deal.Power explained that Friday's resolution contained language condemning violence against Israelis, unlike a similar 2011 measure, which the US vetoed on the grounds that it would harm Middle East peace talks.The United States vetoed a similar resolution in 2011, which was the sole veto cast by the Obama administration at the Security Council. Washington has used its veto a total of 30 times to block council resolutions concerning Israel and the Palestinians, according to Security Council Report, a research organization. It last abstained in 2009 on a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.The decision to abstain from vote was one of the biggest American rebukes of its long-standing ally in recent memory and marked a final chapter in the icy relations between Netanyahu and Obama over the last eight years.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately rejected the UN resolution and slammed the outgoing administration of President Barack Obama for refusing to veto it."Israel rejects this shameful anti-Israel resolution at the UN and will not abide by its terms," a statement from Netanyahu's office said."The Obamaadministration not only failed to protect Israel against this gang-up at the UN, it colluded with it behind the scenes," it said. "Israel looks forward to working with President-elect Trump and with all our friends in Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike, to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution."Friday's vote was scheduled at the request of four countries -- New Zealand, Malaysia, Senegal and Venezuela -- who stepped in to push for action a day after Egypt put the draft resolution on hold.After the resolution passed, Israel announced its ambassadors to Senegal and New Zealand had been ordered to return for consultations. It has no diplomatic relations with Venezuela or Malaysia.In response to Israel's announcement New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in a statement to AFP that the decision should "not come as a surprise to anyone.""We have been very open about our view that the [Security Council] should be doing more to support the Middle East peace process and the position we adopted today is totally in line with our long established policy on the Palestinian question," he said.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi backtracked on the move to condemn Israel's settlement policy after receiving a phone call from President-elect Trump, who spoke out in favor of a US veto.The international community has long been critical of Israeli policies regarding settlements in the West Bank. The peace process has been long frozen, and a last attempt, led by the US and supported by several global bodies, collapsed in 2014.On Twitter, Trump said after the vote that "things will be different" at the United Nations after he takes office on January 20. He issued a statement Thursday saying the UN resolution "puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis." Last week, Trump named his ambassador to Israel as David Friedman, who has said that he does not think Israeli settlement activity is illegal.