Will the U.S. tell Israel how to divide Jerusalem? Illustrative. US Secretary of State Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Photo Courtesy of US State Department.
Already suffering from the American decision not to veto a United Nations Security Council accusing Israel of occupying the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, the Israelis now fear the Obama Administration may go a step further and seal their own vision of borders between Israel and the Palestinians at the U.N. This move, Haaretz reported, could take place during an upcoming Foreign Minister meeting in Paris as part of the French peace initiative planned for January 15.
The Israeli newspaper reported that a Netanyahu government internal briefing shared an assessment based on information gathered that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wants to present his plan for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, which Israel worries could include borders and Jerusalem. This then could be adopted at the foreign minister meeting and subsequently taken to the U.N. Security Council to further cement it, rather than allow the critical element of the peace process to be negotiated. The Israeli information indicates that the U.S. and French are taking the lead on this process.
If the Americans ultimately do take that step, it would be unprecedented in the current era. No American administration since the start of the Oslo peace process in the early 1990s has ever sought to settle an international vision for the solution on behalf of the parties. Haaretz reported that in this scenario, these steps will be done just days before incoming U.S. President Donald Trump takes office on January 20. Trump has repeatedly said, as has been U.S. tradition, that negotiations should decide key peace solution details.
Netanyahu, in comments released by his office on Monday, alluded to future anti-Israel actions when defending Israel’s tough diplomatic response to those who supported the December U.N. resolution on Israel. “There is continuing importance to this response even if there is another attempt or two to harm us in the coming month,” said the Israeli leader.
Netanyahu didn’t sound like he had any intentions of backing down, either. “I tell you that there is no diplomatic wisdom in being ingratiating,” he said.
“Not only will our relations with the nations of the world not be harmed, over time they will only improve because the nations of the world respect strong countries that stand up for themselves and do not respect weak ingratiating countries that bow their heads.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, December 26, 2016)