response to the security council resolution and nbc joins us now from honolulu. what are you hearing from there? >> reporter: even though president obama has been out here on vacation, he had several meetings with his national security team and that was how he came to this decision. you know, the position for the u.s., they always had the same position on the settlement activity. all president obama had to do was vote no to veto the resolution, but he abstained. this means the resolution means that israel will have to stop building settlements on the occupy palestinian territory. keep in mind since 2009, israel is settling on the west bank. there were 100,000 and now it increased to more than 500,000, a huge, huge number. president-elect donald trump has been pushing hard for the u.s. to vote no on this vote.