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Resolved: U.N. Vote Undercuts Israel

P

eruse U.N. Security Council
Resolution 2334, the contentious
resolution the U.S. abstained from
in a Dec. 23 vote, and find code phrases
aplenty — “occupying power,” “East
Jerusalem,” “1967 lines,” “one-state reality,”
“provocative actions,” “credible negotia-
tions.”
The resolution also references “con-
tinuing Israeli settlement activities” that
imperil any prospect for peace between
Israel and the Palestinian people — as if
settlement building is the only sticking
point.
Furor over President
Barack Obama and
Secretary of State John
Kerry ordering the
U.S. abstention when
Resolution 2334 came to
a vote obscured much
of the actual content.
Obama had never bro-
Barack Obama
ken with Israel over a
Security Council resolu-
tion.
The resolution, which passed 14-0 with
the one abstention, wasn’t just another
condemnation of Israeli settlement build-
ing. It struck at the heart of international
misperceptions about Israel’s role in the
stalemated peace talks between Israel and
Palestinian leadership — talks intended
to lay the groundwork for two states, one
Jewish and one Palestinian, living side by
side in peace, with safe, secure, recognized
borders.

BEYOND “OCCUPYING”
The 2½-page resolution was pushed by
New Zealand and other co-sponsors when
Egypt bowed to U.S. and Israeli pressure
seeking to rescind it.
The resolution begins by branding Israel
“the occupying power.” Yes, the Jewish
state maintains a military presence in dis-

Contributing Writers:
Ruthan Brodsky, Suzanne Chessler,
Annabel Cohen, Don Cohen, Shari S. Cohen,
Shelli Liebman Dorfman, Adam Finkel,
Stacy Gittleman, Judy Greenwald,
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Allison Jacobs, Barbara Lewis, Jennifer Lovy,
Rabbi Jason Miller, Alan Muskovitz,
David Sachs, Robin Schwartz, Steve Stein

Arthur M. Horwitz
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directly negotiated by Israel and
puted West Bank territory eyed
the PLO will decide borders.
as part of a future Palestinian
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
state. But such an “occupation,”
Netanyahu has repeatedly invited
in the shadows of Palestinian
Palestinian Authority President
Authority governance, has been
Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah
central to Israel’s security.
party governs Palestinian-
Israeli settlements may be
controlled areas of the West Bank,
considered illegal by interna-
back to bargaining with no pre-
tional law, but the West Bank
Robert Sklar
is part of Eretz Yisrael, the bibli- Contributing Editor conditions. So far, Abbas hasn’t
budged.
cal Land of Israel and is not
In any new talks, Netanyahu
yet part of another state. That
gives Israel a historic right to stakes there, wants Abbas to first acknowledge
Palestinian recognition of Israel as a sov-
pending direct bilateral negotiations with
ereign Jewish state; you can’t negotiate
the Palestine Liberation Organization
if the state you represent is considered
(PLO), the Palestinian people’s official
a Zionist illusion. Such a request should
negotiator.
hardly be a hurdle to negotiating. Two
The resolution goes on to refer to “East
Jerusalem.” The capital “E” alludes to there leading Arab countries, Jordan and Egypt,
have long maintained peace treaties with
being a border municipality separate
Israel.
from Jerusalem but forcibly controlled by
Israel. The truth is that Israel captured
SINGULAR FANTASY
from Jordan both the Arab-dominated
The U.N. resolution implies Israel is to
eastern sector of Jerusalem as well as the
blame for “steadily eroding the two-state
West Bank in the Six-Day War of 1967
solution and entrenching a one-state real-
against Arab forces. The victory reunited
ity.” The main “culprit”: Israeli settlements.
Jerusalem, home to Israel’s capital since
If the Arab world considers them the
statehood in 1948. Jewish life has emanat-
barrier to rekindled talks with Israel, then
ed from the city for nearly 2,000 years. It’s
hope of a peace accord is dimmer than
unjust to call Jews who live in the eastern
anyone thought. Final-status issues are
sector “settlers” and to frame Israel’s gov-
ernment enforcement there as “a violation vast and complex. They include settle-
ments, but also mutual recognition, bor-
of international humanitarian law.”
ders, security, refugees, Jerusalem, water
The JN has never wavered in its belief
that Jerusalem must stay united. However, rights and holy sites. The fact remains,
however, that a steady increase in settlers
provisions could be made for some Arab
since a 2010 settlement freeze isn’t helping
autonomy in predominantly Palestinian
neighborhoods, including de facto govern- Israel make its case in the court of inter-
national opinion.
ment offices should a Palestinian state
“In the interest of the promotion of
ever arise from legitimate peace talks.
peace and security, Resolution 2334 seeks
“collective efforts to launch credible
BORDER DISPUTE
negotiations on all final-status issues.”
Resolution 2334 further refers to ending
That ignores Netanyahu sending an olive
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through
branch to Abbas to restart negotiating;
a two-state solution based on “the 1967
the prime minister still favors a two-state
lines.” Only a final-status agreement

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solution.
Abbas’ apparent strategy, buoyed by
the U.S. abstaining from the resolution, is
to seek statehood through international
conventions, declarations and support —
bypassing Netanyahu’s good-faith efforts
to again negotiate. Israel knows the effect
of absorbing at least 3 million Palestinians
into its state — the potential end of a
Jewish majority. To think Israel wants a
“one-state reality” is balderdash.

SENSELESS EQUATING
Most chilling is how Resolution 2334
seems to equate Palestinian terror
targeting Israeli civilians, soldiers and
property with Israeli defensive strikes in
response.
Inflammatory rhetoric on the part
of Israeli leaders hardly matches up
against a Palestinian way of life that
teaches kids to hate “the Zionist entity”
and grow up to be “martyrs” for Allah by
murdering Israeli Jews via suicide belts,
stabbings, vehicular attacks and sniper
fire.
The resolution urges “the intensifica-
tion and acceleration of international
regional diplomatic efforts and support
aimed at achieving, without delay, a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace in
the Middle East.”
That’s reasoned.
So is the call for talks built upon the
framework of the Arab Peace Initiative,
the Quartet Roadmap and the principle
of land for peace, all of which have pru-
dent elements.
But it’s dangerous to suggest, as
Resolution 2334 does, such talks should
take into account previous resolutions
of the United Nations, whose record of
Israel bashing is ruthless and unrelent-
ing. In abstaining from the resolution,
the Obama administration unequivo-
cally undermined Israel. •

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January 12 • 2017

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