The UN, Israel, and a path to peace

“This is the saddest day of my life since becoming prime minister.” The leader of Israel was referring to the moment the US ambassador to his country delivered a letter informing him that the United States was days away from unveiling a sweeping proposal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The prime minister’s response was blunt: “You may tell the president and the secretary of state that I am astonished that your government did not see fit to indicate that such an initiative was in the making or to consult with the government of Israel at any state of its elaboration. This is entirely unacceptable.”


The prime minister tried to buy time. But when he was informed that the announcement was moved up by two days, his outrage grew: “Is this the way to treat a friend? Is this the way to treat an ally?” he asked the ambassador. “Your government consorts with our despotic enemies and yet you choose to ignore us on a matter of vital import to our future. What kind of discourse is this between democratic peoples who purport to cherish common values? Is this the way to make peace? We do not deserve this kind of treatment.”

The angry and bitter response was not from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a proposal by President Barack Obama or Secretary of State John Kerry in 2016. It was Menachem Begin responding to President Ronald Reagan in 1982.

All American presidents and Israeli prime ministers have disagreed on occasion, some severely. President Eisenhower refused to talk to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and threatened to cut ties with Israel over the 1956 Suez War. President Kennedy warned that the relationship “would be seriously jeopardized” over Israel’s nuclear program. When Israel was reluctant to engage with Egypt, President Nixon said that Israel, “should remember that your pipeline of military supplies is liable to dry up.”
President Reagan, in addition to presenting a peace plan over Israel’s objections, twice suspended the delivery of military aircraft to protest Israeli actions in Lebanon, and said that “the immediate adoption of a settlements freeze by Israel, more than any other action, could create the confidence needed for wider participation in [peace] talks. Further settlement activity is in no way necessary for the security of Israel and only diminishes the confidence of the Arabs that a final outcome can be freely and fairly negotiated.”

President George H.W. Bush cut American loan guarantees to Israel over settlements. Prime Minister Sharon publicly accused President George W. Bush of selling out Israel to appease the Arabs, and Bush requested an Israeli settlement freeze, in support of which he assembled a broad coalition that included all of the 15 member states of the UN Security Council and the members of the Quartet (the United States, the UN, the European Union, and Russia).

This history reflects the reality that while the United States and Israel are close allies they are also independent, vibrant democracies. Personal and policy disagreements are inevitable. All presidents permitted the passage of UN Security Council resolutions critical of and opposed by Israel, some with language nearly identical to the most recent Security Council resolution, 2334. What is remarkable is not the disagreements but the strong and enduring nature of the relationship. The US commitment to Israel’s security is unshakable.

DESPITE HIS CONTENTIOUS relationship with Netanyahu, Obama has presided over the most cooperative relationship between US and Israeli military, security, and intelligence officials in history. He increased aid to Israel to enable it to complete development and early deployment of its Iron Dome missile defense system. He helped shield Israel from the dangerous and inaccurate accusations of the Goldstone Report. He was instrumental in Israel’s becoming a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Recently, he signed the largest ever aid package to Israel.

The reporting and commentary about Resolution 2334 have been highly inaccurate, particularly in two respects. The first is the assertion that, by not vetoing the resolution, Obama reversed a longstanding American policy of preventing the passage of resolutions critical of Israel. While the United States rightly protects Israel from bias at the UN, our shield is not, and never has been, absolute. Since 1967, American presidents have let more than 70 resolutions viewed by Israel as biased, flawed, or wrong pass in the Security Council, over half the time even voting “yes.” Of those resolutions, only one passed during the Obama Administration, the lowest number for any president.

Also inaccurate is the claim that 2334’s language has uniquely eroded Israel’s claims to territories it captured during the 1967 war, including in Jerusalem, where the Western Wall and other holy sites are located. The resolution states, “The establishment of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity.” That language is not new.

In 1980, during the Carter Administration, the United States voted “yes” on Resolution 465, which stated that Israeli measures in “the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and . . . constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” The Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying party from transferring its own civilian population into territories it occupies. That’s why Israel’s settlements are viewed as lacking legal validity.

In 1986, during the Reagan administration, the United States abstained, thereby enabling passage of Resolution 592, which “reaffirms that the Geneva Convention . . . is applicable to the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem.” Resolutions with nearly identical language on territory and Jerusalem passed during the presidencies of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Many in Israel and elsewhere strongly disagree with the characterization of the territory involved as “occupied.” But virtually all the world’s governments, including the United States, view it that way, and have done so since 1967.

Nonetheless, we believe the United States should have vetoed Resolution 2334, even though the policy it sets forth is consistent with a half century of American policy of opposition to Israeli settlements under five Republican and four Democratic presidents. Our concern is that rather than moving the sides toward the negotiations that will be necessary to resolve the conflict — which is the stated purpose of American policy – it would, to the contrary, drive them even further apart than they already are.

EMBOLDENED BY WHAT they perceive as a victory, Palestinian officials now openly discuss an accelerated drive to achieve a state through international institutions. They already have raised their flag at the UN and secured recognition by 137 countries. But that statehood, and its recognition, is in name only. A real state where it matters, on the ground, can be achieved only with the participation of Israel, which controls the territory. The Palestinian leadership must confront and act on that reality by entering direct negotiations. Settlements are an obstacle to peace, but they’re just one of many important issues on which the parties should engage as soon as possible.

The misinformation widely disseminated in the United States and Israel about Resolution 2334 is unwarranted and unwise. Israel is already isolated in the Muslim world, now one-fifth of the world’s population and soon to be one-third. The prime minister’s decision to retaliate against some of the countries that voted for the resolution prolongs the international debate about settlements and further emboldens the Palestinian pursuit of statehood through international institutions. That is contrary to Israel’s interests, especially since it is unlikely that Israel can inflict sufficient political or economic pain on any of those countries to cause them to reverse their decision or to act differently in the future. Indeed, the silence in the world is deafening. In the weeks since the resolution passed, of the nearly 200 countries in the world, only one — Australia — has said it would have voted “no” on the resolution, but even Australia did not express affirmative support for Israel’s actions on settlements.

Kerry was correct in his assertion that the two-state solution remains the only viable way to end this conflict. There is no alternative to partition. That is consistent with the policy set forth by President George W. Bush in a speech to Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jerusalem in 2008:

“The point of departure for permanent status negotiations . . . is clear: There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967. The agreement must establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people. These negotiations must ensure that Israel has secure, recognized, and defensible borders. And they must ensure that the State of Palestine is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent. It is vital that each side understands that satisfying the other’s fundamental objectives is key to a successful agreement. Security for Israel and viability for the Palestinian state are in the mutual interest of both parties.”

Bush’s words remain true and relevant. Sooner or later, Israelis and Palestinians will come to that conclusion. Let us all hope and pray that they do so before there is further bloodshed and destruction.

#RIPUSA Defying U.N., Israel Prepares to Build More Settlements

Housing construction last week on the outskirts of Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish housing development in East Jerusalem. CreditJim Hollander/European Pressphoto Agency

 Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel’s government said Monday that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.”

Just a few days after the United Nations Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements, Jerusalem’s municipal government signaled that it would not back down: The city intends to approve 600 housing units in the predominantly Palestinian eastern section of town on Wednesday in what a top official called a first installment on 5,600 new homes.

The defiant posture reflected a bristling anger among Israel’s pro-settlement political leaders, who not only blamed the United States for failing to block the Council resolution, but also claimed to have secret intelligence showing that President Obama’s team had orchestrated it. American officials strongly denied the claim, but the sides seem poised for more weeks of conflict until Mr. Obama hands over the presidency to Donald J. Trump.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Security Council countries by curbing diplomatic contacts, recalling envoys, cutting off aid and summoning the American ambassador for a scolding. He canceled a planned visit this week by Ukraine’s prime minister even as he expressed concern on Monday that Mr. Obama was planning more action at the United Nations before his term ends next month.Continue reading the main story


The prime minister defended his retaliation. “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek,” he said. “This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.”

The Security Council resolution that passed Friday condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation under international law” and an obstacle to peace. The Council approved it 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining instead of using its unilateral veto, as it has in the past.

Mr. Trump publicly pressed for a veto of the resolution and has chosen a settlement advocate as his administration’s ambassador to Israel. He turned to Twitter on Monday night to air complaints that the United Nations “is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.”

Palestinian leaders made clear that they would use the resolution in international bodies to press their case against Israel. With the imprimatur of a United Nations finding of illegality, they said, they will campaign to require that other countries not just label products made in the settlements, but ban them.

“Now we can talk about the boycott of all settlements, the companies that work with them, et cetera, and actually take legal action against them if they continue to work with them,” Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Palestinian news media.

He outlined other steps the Palestinians could now take, using the resolution to press the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders, file lawsuits on behalf of specific Palestinians displaced by settlements and urge the international authorities to determine whether Israel is violating the Geneva Conventions.

“We are looking to devise a comprehensive vision, and hopefully 2017 will be the year when the Israeli occupation ends,” Mr. Malki said.

Israeli officials said such pronouncements showed that the resolution actually undermined chances for a negotiated settlement because the Palestinians now have less incentive to come to the table. By declaring Israeli settlements illegal, they said, the United Nations essentially took away the one chip that Israel had to trade, meaning land.

“The Palestinians are waging a diplomatic and legal war against Israel. That’s the strategy,” Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said in a phone interview. “Their strategy is not to negotiate an agreement with Israel because a deal is give and take. They want take and take.”

Israel’s settlement project, once a scattering of houses across the so-called Green Line marking the borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has grown substantially over the years. In 2009, the year Mr. Obama took office, 297,000 people lived in West Bank settlements and 193,737 in East Jerusalem. That increased to 386,000 in the West Bank by the end of last year and 208,000 in East Jerusalem by the end of 2014, according to Peace Now, a group that opposes settlements.

Israeli officials note that when Mr. Netanyahu acquiesced to a 10-month settlement freeze sought by Mr. Obama in 2009, the Palestinians still did not agree to negotiate until just before time ran out. But the addition of more than 100,000 settlers during Mr. Obama’s tenure convinced him that it was time to change his approach at the United Nations, aides said.

The 618 housing units to be granted building permits in East Jerusalem on Wednesday have been in the works for a while, and the planning committee meeting agenda was set before the United Nations acted. But the committee chairman said he was determined to go forward with units totaling 5,600.

“I won’t get worked up over the U.N. or any other organization that might try to dictate to us what to do in Jerusalem,” Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, the planning committee chairman, told the newspaper Israel Hayom. “I hope that the government and the new administration in the United States will give us momentum to continue.”

Although he did not specify which projects he had in mind, Ir Amim, a private group tracking settlements in East Jerusalem, said he was probably referring to projects in Gilo and Givat Hamatos. Betty Herschman, the group’s director of international relations and advocacy, said it was “defiance demonstrated after Trump’s election, now reinforced by the U.N. resolution.”

Anat Ben Nun, the director of development and external relations for Peace Now, said such construction was problematic. “Netanyahu’s attempt to avenge the U.N.S.C. resolution through approval of plans beyond the Green Line will only harm Israelis and Palestinians by making it more difficult to arrive at a two-state solution,” she said.

Israeli leaders said they had no reason to stop building. The Security Council resolution “was absurd and totally removed from reality,” said Oded Revivi, chief foreign envoy for the Yesha Council, which represents West Bank settlers. “Israeli building policies are set in Jerusalem, not New York.”

For the fourth day, Israeli officials accused Mr. Obama’s team of ambushing them at the United Nations. While the White House denied it, Israeli officials pointed to a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his New Zealand counterpart a month before the Council vote discussing a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. New Zealand was a sponsor of Friday’s measure.

Mr. Dermer, the ambassador, said Israel had other, nonpublic information proving the Obama administration’s involvement but provided no evidence and would not elaborate beyond saying it would be provided to Mr. Trump’s team when he takes office.

“They not only did not get up and stop it, they were behind it from the beginning,” Mr. Dermer said. “This is why the prime minister is so angry. We’re going to stand up against it.”

Israeli officials worried that Mr. Kerry would use a coming speech or a conference in France to outline an American peace plan that would be hostile to Israel’s interests. Mr. Kerry’s office had no comment.

The fury of Mr. Netanyahu’s response has generated debate at home. Mitchell Barak, a political consultant, said the political left considered the resolution “an epic foreign policy and diplomatic debacle” by Mr. Netanyahu.

But to his base, the Security Council action confirmed what they believed all along, that Mr. Obama is inherently anti-Israel, and so the prime minister comes across as a champion beset by enemies. “For them,” Mr. Barak said, “Netanyahu emerges from this unscathed, as the lone wolf in a lion’s den of hatred.”