by Peter A. Belmont / 2011-09-30
© 2011 Peter Belmont
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The nations are near unanimous in condemning Israel’s proposal to build another 1,100 housing units in occupied East Jerusalem. Like other diplomatic comment on Israeli lawlessness, this condemnation is actually a “green light” to Israel, a “praising with faint damns”.
A “red light” is described. I don’t expect to see it any time soon.
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The nations of the world are near unanimous in condemning Israel’s recent announcement of its plans to build 1,100 new housing units in occupied East Jerusalem. See Condemnation grows against Israel’s settlement plans .
The USA said new settlement building is unhelpful for the [so-called] “peace process”, or some other mealy-mouthed go-ahead-disguised-as-criticism. The USA sends Israel nothing but green lights to continue its illegal encroachments on Palestinian territory.
”We are particularly concerned that decisions on such a sensitive matter should be taken at an extremely important time for the future of the peace process,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Another green light.
Europeans nations Britain, France and Italy also condemned the move, with China, Japan and Egypt also issuing statements.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr called the move “provocative” while Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters in Beijing that it “regrets” Israeli settlement plans.
Turkey said, “This is a flagrant violation of international law and is not acceptable”. Well, at least it calls the settlement project “illegal”, but this—standing alone—is still a green light.
For the nations all know (what their people do not), that the UNSC by UNSC-465 demanded that Israel remove all settlers and dismantle all settlements in 1980 (that’s 30 years ago for the numerically challenged), but the resolution HAD NO TEETH and Israel ignored it entirely.
Indeed, Israel’s settlement project and other lawlessness in service of its occupation have been condemned so many times that mere words have no more effect on Israel than the water that runs off a duck’s back has on the duck. None. Nada. Zilch. (As Ben-Gurion said, it doesn’t matter what the non-Jews say, it only matters what the Jews do.”)[1]
What a RED LIGHT would look like.
Until the nations (either most nations or a few significant ones with economic and perhaps military clout) band together and demand that Israel comply with the law (inter alia by removing all settlers, dismantling the wall, and quite possibly also dismantling the settlements buildings) and back up the demand by pre-stated and automatic sanctions for non-compliance by Israel, Israel will quite reasonably continue its lawless course without fear of any adverse consequences whatever.
Diplomatic talk is conducted in secret, so I must suppose—but cannot know—that discussions of such an international demand-with-teeth have been on-going for many years, if probably desultorily, no state having the gumption to “go public” or to go first with an attempt in this direction. One imagines that the USA has stood in the way, and what the USA wants it often gets.
So, I have described what a “red light” would look like. Any bets about how soon we see a “red light” of this sort even mentioned by serious diplomats in public?
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[1] ”Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn’t matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn’t matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won’t survive.”—As quoted by Ariel Sharon, in the documentary The 50 Years War : Israel & The Arabs (1999), this advice was given to him by Ben-Gurion after the controversial raid on Qibya.
Ben-Gurion quotes
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