(Arutz Sheva) The New York Times has demanded President Barack Obama use his last months in office to hit Israel hard diplomatically.
Apparently, this is in response to the fact that the Israeli government “approved the construction of a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank,” which is simply “another step in the steady march under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to build on land needed to create a Palestinian state.”
Last week, the Israeli government approved a plan allowing Amona residents to move to the neighboring town of Shilo, where they would be housed in a new neighborhood on government land planned specially for them.
Shilo is a town in the Biblical “hills of Ephraim,” and is now under the jurisdiction of the Binyamin Regional Council.
In an article written by their “Editorial Board,” the NY Times writes that, “The best idea under discussion now would be to have the United Nations Security Council, in an official resolution, lay down guidelines for a peace agreement covering such issues as Israel’s security, the future of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and borders for both states.”
The article continues to say that this neighborhood “is designed to house settlers from a nearby illegal outpost, called Amona, which an Israeli court has ordered demolished because it is built on private, Palestinian-owned land.”
No one has yet come forward claiming ownership of the land Amona is built on. Instead, left-wing organizations have found property deeds given out by King Hussein of Jordan. No taxes were paid on the land, no one did anything to it, no one knows who the owners are, and the founders of Amona built in good faith on land they were told was unowned.
Though there has been a de-facto building freeze in Judea and Samaria for several years, the NY Times insists that, “A failure to freeze settlements has long been at the center of tensions between successive American administrations and Israel. This latest decision was especially insulting…If the new settlement was known earlier, it might have affected those [military aid package] negotiations.”
The article continues, “The most plausible pressure would come from Mr. Obama’s leading the Security Council to put its authority behind a resolution to support a two-state solution and offer the outlines of what that could be…it is the kind of political pressure Mr. Netanyahu abhors and has been working assiduously to prevent.”
The New York Times ran its editorial just one week before the United Nations Security Council is set to hold a public debate on Israeli “settlement activity” in Judea and Samaria, as well as Jewish building in greater Jerusalem.
This meeting is known as an Arria Formula meeting, and was set in response to the Palestinian Authority’s request. The Palestinian Authority, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, has tried several times to pressure the UN Security Council members to issue a resolution, such as the one described above. The PA also hopes that the Arria Formula meeting will spur UNSC action against Israel.
For years, the Palestinian Arabs have insisted that “settlement activity” is the obstacle to peace and the creation of a two-state solution.
Preferring instead a directly negotiated agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, both Israel and the US have opposed any UNSC efforts to dictate the terms of a two-state solution.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner emphasized the US’s long-standing position to oppose biased and one-sided UN resolutions against Israel.
“With regard to the UN Security Council and any action at the UN, our position hasn’t changed. We’re always concerned, frankly, about one-sided resolutions or other actions that could be taken within the UN, and we’re always going to oppose those kinds of resolutions that we believe delegitimize Israel and undermine its security,” said Toner.
Toner explained, “We’re going to carefully consider our future engagement, if and when we reach that point, and determine how to most effectively pursue and advance the objective that we all at least claim to share, which is that of achieving a negotiated two-state solution.”
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stated that “all of Israel is the occupation,” even cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa, which are within the “Green Line.”
Though the US has historically blocked Palestinian-led attempts by the UN to issue condemnations or resolutions against Israel, particularly with regard to the settlements, there is speculation that Obama might utilize his lame-duck last two months in office to pressure Israel and aid the “Palestinian” cause.
The Palestinian Authority has consistently refused to conduct direct talks with Israel until a list of pre-conditions are met, though Israel has repeatedly called on the Palestinians to hold such talks without preconditions.
