Congress: 105 · Status: active · Israel/Palestine classification: pro-Israel
Data (JSON) — machine-readable record of this bill (identifiers, sponsor, classification, actions, and the member-by-member vote breakdown).
Official record on Congress.gov — full text, actions, and cosponsor history for SRES 186.
Sponsor: Moynihan, Daniel Patrick (D-NY)
Expresses the sense of the Senate that: (1) it should be U.S. policy to support Israel's efforts to enter an appropriate United Nations (UN) regional group; (2) the President should instruct the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN to carry out this policy; (3) the United States should insist that any effort to reform the UN, including the Security Council, also resolve this anomaly and should ensure that the principle of sovereign equality be upheld without exception; and (4) the Secretary of State should submit a report to the Congress on the steps taken by the United States, the UN Secretary General, and others to help secure Israel's membership in an appropriate UN regional group.
The Senate expresses that US policy should support Israel joining a UN regional group (Israel is currently unaffiliated). The resolution directs the US UN ambassador to advocate for this goal and calls on the Secretary of State to report back to Congress on progress. It frames this as upholding the principle of equal UN membership for all nations.
Non-binding resolutions like this signal congressional sentiment and can shape US diplomatic priorities at the UN. This one directs US officials to actively lobby for Israel's institutional standing at the United Nations, institutionalizing advocacy for Israel's interests within US foreign policy infrastructure.