By George Wilson, contributing columnist | Major countries voting in the United Nations condemned Israel’s construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation under international law” and an obstacle to peace in the region. The United States chose to abstain rather than use its veto, as it has done in the past to quash resolutions it considered anti-Israel. The arrogant right-wing Netanyahu then announced plans to increase illegal settlements.
Netanyahu may win the battle now, but long-term, he is going to have issues. He’s never wanted to negotiate with the Palestinians, and the illegal settlements prove that. The settlers are technically occupying Palestinian land. Israel has every right to exist, but occupying the Palestinian land is not going to end well. Netanyahu is only hurting Israel, not helping its citizens.
Israel is a well respected country where it gives people a lot of freedom many other places in the Middle East rarely do, but continuing to build settlements is not helping the peace.
The media should name the UK, France, New Zealand, Japan, China, and Russia as supporters. The American public needs to understand the broad range of support for this resolution. Otherwise, it allows the right-wing of the Israeli government and the incoming Trump administration to imply that Obama is an outlier and then press ahead with settlement expansion that is both illegal and a provocation.
The big mistake here was the U.S. abstention vote. The U.S. should have voted in support of the U.N. measure as a way to send a clear message to Netanyahu that Israel must comply with International Law.
Then, if compliance is not forth-coming, U.S. aid to Israel should be suspended until it comes into alignment. Unless this happens, we are dooming the future of the Middle East and the World. It’s past time to fix this problem — one that will have persisted for 50 years in 2017.
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