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.

Zion loses its Virginity ( finally) to backstabbing Uncle Sambama : United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 a step away for the Cause of Peace.

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 In four respects, UNSCR 2334 undermines the prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace and threatens what little regional stability is left. First, it could force Israel to fall back on its powerful legal position as the only existing legal inheritor of the British Mandate. Second, it compounds the error made by Obama's transition team even before he came to power of ignoring a written commitment of a US president. Third, it has placed Sisi's government in Egypt – a keystone of regional stability – in an untenable position. Fourth and most painfully, it will make it far more complicated – if not impossible – for the Palestinian leadership, enticed by the prospect of international coercion, to accept a reasonable compromise. The New Zealanders, do-gooders with a very dim understanding of what they have wrought, can be forgiven such folly. The Obama administration has no such excuses.

"Be careful what you wish for; you might get it" says the old adage, and sober elements among the Palestinian leadership may yet rue the day they managed to secure an American abstention leading to the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334. The resolution condemns “settlement activity” anywhere, including East Jerusalem, and calls upon all members to distinguish in practice between Jews who live on one side of the Armistice Line of 1949 and those who live beyond it. It presumes to speak in the name of international law and to create the conditions for further progress towards peace in the interests of both Palestinians and "legitimate" Israelis. In fact, this poorly designed and atrociously timed diplomatic tool seems set to harm, if not entirely destroy, the very purposes it was designed to serve.

It is bound to do damage to Israeli interests (and those of Palestinian employees in Jewish-owned businesses) through the encouragement of practices already promoted by the EU (labelling, differential tariffs, etc.) and by giving momentum to the BDS movement, which aims at the ultimate delegitimization of Israel and the entire Zionist project. But these effects can be effectively countered by energetic action by Israel and its friends, not least in the US Congress. As in the (non-comparable) case of terrorism, they must not be allowed to dictate life and death decisions to Israel that need to be taken strictly according to the national interest.

Much greater harm has been done to the prospects for peace and regional stability.  There are several sad aspects to this, all pointing to the short-sighted and perhaps vindictive mindset behind the Obama administration's decision to let it happen when it could easily have been avoided. In line with several of the administration’s past decisions, it speaks the language of high morality but fails to attend to basic facts or possible consequences.

To begin with, the entire disquisition rests upon President Jimmy Carter's costly mistake of allowing a similar text, UNSCR 465, to slip through in March 1980. The passage of that resolution had serious consequences both to Carter’s political standing (Obama, preferring to act in his lame duck period, took no such risks) and to the advancement of the process initiated at Camp David. When Israeli leaders are confronted with a UN and US endorsement of the Arab narrative, which ignores the circumstances of both 1949 and 1967, they are unlikely to feel comfortable enough to work for an equitable compromise, and certainly not when there is no partner for compromise on the other side.

Moreover, by using litigious language (which may lead to trouble at the ICC, if the Prosecutor's office is not careful in the use of criteria such as gravitas and complementarity), UNSCR 2334 may leave Israel no choice but to stand on its own interpretation of international law. That interpretation stands on very firm ground, as suggested by the late Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy. The so-called "Palestinian Occupied Territories" were never Palestinian at any point for these reasons: first, the Palestinian leadership rejected UNGAR 181 (November 1947) in all its aspects and launched a war of annihilation; and second, the territories were held between 1949 and 1967 by an occupying power that gained the recognition of only two states (Britain and Pakistan) to their annexation to Jordan. They are therefore, as the late Prime Minister Begin was fond of reminding his listeners, res nullius. Israel is thus the only existing inheritor of the League of Nations mandate, which called upon the mandatory power to secure the "close settlement of Jews on the land."

Israel never chose to turn the political effort to reach a compromise into a legal wrangle, but that choice may now have been thrust upon it. The Israeli government has sidestepped even elementary legal arguments, such as the obvious meaning of the phrase in UNSCR 242 calling for withdrawal from "territories," not "the territories." The assumption was that a narrow legal approach would bind Israel’s hands when the day came to offer significant concessions. But now that Israel has been essentially put in the dock by 2334, it has ample legal tools at its disposal with which to counter the assault – at the expense, sadly, of a coherent discussion of practical compromises.

A second unfortunate aspect is that the Obama administration, secure in the presumption that it was "saving Israel from itself," drew no lessons from its own past errors of judgment. This goes all the way back to the decision, taken by Obama’s transition team before the 2009 inauguration, to annul a written commitment by President George W. Bush in an exchange of letters with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in April 2004 that implied that the terms of reference for negotiations should reflect the demographic realities on the ground. This abandonment, which shook Israeli professionals and politicians, was unprecedented, and did much to undermine the prospect of peace from day one. Indeed, Obama's efforts to create "daylight" between US and Israeli positions led to the one of the longest barren periods in the history of the peace process. Now the mistake has been repeated and worsened. A tragedy replayed as a farce is still a tragedy.

A third and highly damaging, if indirect, result of the vote is the potential discrediting of Egyptian President Sisi as a useful influence in the region. Approached by President-elect Trump, with whom he has established a warm relationship, Sisi was willing to pull the Egyptian draft. Instead of honoring Trump’s wish to let the incoming administration take its own stock of the situation, Obama dismissed the effort as irrelevant. With the proclamation “we are still here,” he went ahead with the resolution, cooperating with the likes of Venezuela and Malaysia, putting Sisi in the untenable position of being less loyal than they are to the Arab cause. Obama’s ill-judged action has reduced Sisi’s vital role as a cornerstone of regional stability, and rapid action will be required to undo the damage.

Finally and most tragically, the resolution greatly reduces the likelihood that the Palestinian leadership will have what it takes to strike a workable compromise at the negotiating table. It is weak and divided (notwithstanding President Abbas’s success at the Seventh Fatah Conference, where he isolated and even criminalized his rival, Muhammad Dahlan), and has not been marked hitherto by the courage necessary to make an implementable outcome possible.

Abbas did offer a conciliatory note after the UN vote, calling for coexistence and implying that he is aware that the future still depends on the Israeli electorate. But he is less able now than ever before to offer a vision that departs from the template of expectations he and his colleagues have generated. A "solution" tailored to satisfy the hopes fostered by the UNSCR text – i.e., the delegitimization and ultimate removal of each and every Jew living beyond the 1949 armistice lines, absurdly including East Jerusalem – simply cannot be implemented. Anyone who encourages the Palestinians to believe that the forced removal of hundreds of thousands is preferable to a convoluted but practical compromise that would involve human dislocation on a much smaller scale – and that leaves Jerusalem a living, united city – is abetting a pipe dream.

Venezuela and Malaysia, virulent anti-Israel players, did this for their own reasons. Senegal tagged along. New Zealand may have failed to comprehend what the initiative entails, and in Europe the settlements have been an obsessive preoccupation for years. But the Obama administration was well positioned to know that this resolution would do little but harm. Its decision to let it happen anyway, when Egypt offered a legitimate and honorable way out, raises troubling questions about Obama’s motives. Still, there is a silver lining. Given the Obama administration’s own practice of annulling its predecessor's position, it is now their position that can legitimately be undone – by practical and symbolic acts – come January 21.

Cameos From Zion: #RIPUSA Defying U.N., Israel Prepares to Build Mo...

Cameos From Zion: #RIPUSA Defying U.N., Israel Prepares to Build Mo...: Housing construction last week on the outskirts of Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish housing development in East Jerusalem. CreditJim Hollander/Europea...

House Passes $635.7 million for Israel Missile Defense Program , Lam Duck Obama treated to veto milltary increased support for Zion

Capitol Hill
House approves defense aid to Israel despite veto threat

House of Representatives passes defense spending bill which includes $635.7 million for U.S.-Israel missile defense programs

The United States House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $576 billion defense spending bill which includes $635.7 million for U.S.-Israel missile defense programs, despite a threat by the Obama administration to veto the bill, The Jewish Insider reports.

The fiscal 2017 defense appropriations bill includes $268.7 million in research and development funding for U.S.-Israel cooperative missile and rocket defense programs; $25 million in research and development funding for U.S.-Israel directed energy activities, such as laser technologies, to combat missiles and rockets; $72 million for procurement of the Iron Dome rocket defense system; $150 million for procurement of the David’s Sling missile defense system; and $120 million for procurement of the Arrow-3 missile defense system.

It passed by a majority of 282-138, noted the report.

In addition, the House included $42.7 million for U.S.-Israel anti-tunnel cooperation to continue developing technologies for dealing with the challenge of locating, mapping and destroying terrorist tunnel networks from Gaza.

The passing of the bill comes despite the fact that earlier this week, the White House announced its objection to the Congressional proposal to increase funding for Israeli missile defense in 2017.

White House officials on Wednesday night played down the statement objecting to the proposal, explaining that the administration believes any additional aid to Israel should be part of the 10-year military aid agreement the two countries are now negotiating, and not in the 2017 defense budget, as Congress proposed.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby defended the administration’s opposition to the funding increase on Wednesday, calling it “the largest such non-emergency increase ever.” Kirby added that the increase “would consume a growing share of a shrinking U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s budget”, according to The Jewish Insider.

The current defense agreement between Israel and the United States remains in force until 2018, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been urged to accept President Barack Obama’s 10-year military aid package which reportedly includes a total of $145.8 million for Israeli missile defense programs, a sharp drop in financial support.

A total of $3 billion in defense aid is given annually, but Netanyahu has asked for an increase to $5 billion annually, in light of the greater need for security due to the growing Iranian threat after the nuclear deal.

In a statement released following Thursday’s vote, AIPAC commended the GOP-controlled House “for significantly bolstering its support of U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation,” which will “help Israel defend its citizens against rocket and missile threats, and contribute to America’s missile defense programs.”

“As Israel faces dramatically rising security challenges, AIPAC urges inclusion of these vital funds in the final versions of the Fiscal Year 2017 defense authorization and appropriations bills,” AIPAC added, according to The Jewish Insider.