Huge Palestinian victory

The high drama at the UN Security Council on Friday produced two scenes, one never seen before and the other seen all too often. The US abstention, which allowed the landmark vote to pass calling for an end to illegal Israeli settlements, was a stinging, public rebuke from the US to Israel, arguably its closest ally in the world. Then, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s defiance that Israel would not abide by the vote once again showed his customary predilection for breaking international law. The Security Council approved the resolution 14 votes to zero, with the US abstaining, in sharp contrast to standing American practice, thus driving the final nail into the bitter relationship Netanyahu had with President Obama, most of the acrimony caused by Israeli settlements. The resolution, which had been delayed following a day of intense diplomatic flurry by Israel to try to offset it, is a huge victory for the Palestinians and a massive setback for Israel. The resolution is binding, its unanimity making it all but impossible to be repealed by the incoming US administration. But, of course, if Netanyahu does defy the resolution, he will only be doing what he does best: colonize more and more Palestinian land under the guise of an ideological duty. There can be no erasing the historical truth that the existence of Israel is predicated on the obliteration of another people. If there was any good news for Israel after the vote, it was that the US abstention almost guarantees that Obama will not put forward the so-called parameters that would propose a permanent two-state agreement that should become a UN Security Council resolution. Netanyahu dreaded the parameters plan because it offers a blueprint for two states, an idea he pays only lip service to. For Obama to introduce the parameters after his shocking abstention vote would have been two US knocks to the Israeli head instead of one. And also the promise by US President-elect Donald Trump to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, never done before, suddenly became more than just campaign talk, as a way of compensating Israel for the devastating settlements vote. But starting from Friday, it has become illegal to build more settlements, and their political mission - to possess the West Bank and prevent a Palestinian state – has been stopped. As the settler population swells, any scenario of a Palestinian state that encompasses the entire West Bank has dwindled. It’s simply not plausible to remove more than 450,000 residents from their established communities. Israel has already confiscated a large portion of the West Bank for its ever-growing illegal settlements. This violation of international law restricts the viability of any Palestinian state. The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been transformed into dozens of clusters of townships that imprison over three million Palestinians, a people held hostage for the sake of illegal settlers. Over time, and especially as Israeli politics has shifted rightward, the settler movement has become an institutionalized part of Israeli society. While peace talks remain frozen, the settlements continue to grow, making any possibility of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, to say the least, faint. American diplomacy has for far too long been too passive to both Israel’s refusal to end settlement activity and the Palestinian demand to freeze settlements. On Friday, America did what it should have done long ago. Through illegal settlement, the continuing expropriation and confiscation of Palestinian land, and Bantustanization of a people’s homeland, Israel is destroying the potential for peace which, after all, must be based on international law. It is something Israel refuses to abide by but which on Friday America decided to accept.