Will the world tell Israel to give up Jerusalem? US President Obama (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (right). Illustrative. (Photo Courtesy of Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The United States played a key diplomatic role in foiling the Palestinian efforts to pursue unilateral statehood outside of negotiations several years ago, and the American veto at the powerful United Nations Security Council wasn’t even required. But Israel can’t count on America’s help this time.
Al-Monitor has reported that a US diplomatic source has said the US is not planning to stop European efforts to create a new push for UN-sponsored Palestinian statehood. The plan this time is for new peace negotiations to be put forth, but with a UN Security Council-imposed time limit of two years. Another US source told Al-Monitor that the US isn’t arguing over the general concepts put forth by the French—they just want to wait until after the Israeli elections in March.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, running for his third term as Israel’s leader, said as he boarded a flight for Rome to meet US and European officials that Israel wasn’t planning to let the world powers decide their future for them.
“In recent years we have rebuffed recurrent attempts to dictate conditions to us that would have harmed Israel’s security and which are incompatible with genuine peace,” said Netanyahu in comments released by his office. “This time as we will we will not accept attempts to dictate to us unilateral moves on a limited timetable.”
Netanyahu has already argued that territorial withdrawal without sufficient security measures would result in more conflict, not peace. That his comments come just months after another war with Gaza and amidst some of the worst terrorism in Jerusalem in a decade adds a tragic ring to the words.
“In the reality in which Islamic terrorism is reaching out to all corners of the globe, we will rebuff any attempt that would put this terrorism inside our home, inside the State of Israel,” said Netanyahu. “I will make this unequivocally clear. We will stand firm in the face of any diktat.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, December 15, 2014)