“When Israel celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2018, the Palestinians will mark a very different anniversary: 70 years since what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe”.
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The Palestinians have been constant in one tenet during all of the negotiations – that is (along with Iran and a number of other Arab states) they do not want a two-state solution. Why not leave the question of settlements open until the (unlikely) day when there are new peace talks?
The governance of Jerusalem is at the core of the decades-long worldwide dispute, with nearly all nations with diplomatic ties to Israel establishing their embassies in Tel Aviv, 70 kilometres away.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the Obama administration for not forcing a veto of the resolution.
Peace between Palestinians and Israelis-and the wider Arab world-remains a goal to be endlessly pursued.
For their part Jewish settlements in the West Bank would be incorporated into Israel while the remaining areas under Palestinian administration – known as Areas A and B – would be given a degree of autonomy short of statehood. These actions block a pathway to peace.
Bennett’s call also comes soon after the adoption by the United Nations security council of a resolution reiterating that Jewish settlements on land intended for a future Palestinian state represent a “flagrant violation” of worldwide law and an obstacle to a two-state solution. He was not afraid to tell the Obama administration point blank that their allowing the resolution to pass will push us further from peace in the Middle East. Over 20 percent of United Nations funding is provided by the US, according to BuzzFeed.
Khan al-Ahmar is one of several Bedouin villages facing forced relocation due to plans by Israeli authorities to build thousands of homes for Jewish-only settlements in the E1 corridor.
There’s an avenue for this. Among other provisions, they prohibit countries from installing their own citizens onto lands that it has conquered or occupies by military force.
Naftali Bennett, champion of the settler cause and leader of the rightist Jewish Home party is never out of the news or off the TV screens, and is positioning himself as the man who has answers to worldwide criticism. Aside from its controversies with Israel, the United Nations has been a force for good, and we hope Trump and other Republicans will not hold the United Nations hostage over one issue. Trump has been an unquestioning supporter of Israel and his nominee for ambassador to Israel is a fervent backer of the settlements.
A headline that would become famous appeared in the New York Daily News in October 1975 after then-President Gerald Ford denied federal assistance to spare the city from bankruptcy. It isn’t even a solution.
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Says Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, “We would be doing something that helps to preserve the two-state option, and I think that’s in our interest”. But with the profound intricacies and complexities of such a conflict, it is grossly presumptuous and sadly unrealistic to expect one speech, even from the top U.S. diplomat, to be anything more than just a historical footnote.
