By Ted Belman
Haaretz just reported U.S. criticizes PA bid to take settlement construction to UN
A senior US official told Haaretz:
- “Final status issues can only be resolved through negotiations between the parties, not by recourse to the UN Security Council. We, therefore, consistently oppose any attempt to take final status issues to the council as such efforts do not move us closer to our goal of two states living side by side in peace and security.”
Assuming the US will stick to this, it is hugely important and can’t be said by them enough.
Unfortunately the US would not commit to vetoing it.
I do not think that US can veto this particular resolution that criticizes only the settlements and calls them illegal, without encountering an almost universal condemnation from the nations of the world, including our allies in the EU. Also, the US has over the last two decades consistently called the settlements “illegitimate”, and so it would be awkward to veto a resolution that mirrors our own official stance. The question is whether President Obama is willing to tarnish even more America’s already tarnished image, merely to protect Israel from the consequences of this resolution. And that is the sad part: the news that people are wondering whether he would veto the resolution. If people thought Obama valued justice, nobody would have wondered about it because they would be convinced that he would not veto it. The fact that they are wondering about it reflects how far Obama has fallen from grace since the day he delivered that grand speech from Cairo.
Yesh Prabhu, Bushkill, Pennsylvania