In this March 8, 2016, file photo, Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., asks a question on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Topeka ? Lashing out, perhaps for the last time, at President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said Friday that he planned to introduce a resolution next week criticizing the United Nations Security Council for passing a resolution that was harshly critical of Israel for building new settlements in Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.

“Over the last eight years, the Obama administration has made a series of blatantly misguided choices when it comes to working with our strongest ally in the Middle East,” the Kansas Republican said in a statement late Friday. “Secretary (of State John) Kerry further provoked Israelis and all who stand as allies to Israel with his remarks this week.”

On Dec. 23, the Security Council passed Resolution 2334 saying Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory it has occupied since 1967 has “no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”

The resolution passed after the United States chose to abstain rather than to exercise its veto authority as it usually does on resolutions criticizing Israel.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that her vote to abstain did “not in any way diminish the United States’ steadfast and unparalleled commitment to the security of Israel.”

Several U.S. allies, including France, Japan, Spain, Great Britain and New Zealand voted in favor of the unanimous measure.

Kerry said in a speech on Wednesday that new Israeli settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem pose a threat to any two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, a solution that the U.S. and its allies have long supported.

But the Obama administration’s decision to abstain on the vote set off a firestorm of controversy, both abroad and in the U.S., where Republicans, as well as some Democrats, have accused the administration of turning its back on Israel.

President-elect Donald Trump also criticized the move, on Twitter, and urged Israel to “stay strong” until he takes office Jan. 20.

Moran also expressed hope that the incoming Trump administration will take a different approach.

“The incoming administration will have to work overtime to repair the damage President Obama has done,” Moran said. “The resolution I introduce next week when Congress reconvenes will express the sense of the Senate that we stand in support of Israel and disapprove of the U.N.’s actions.”