In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council

In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council

turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com

The U.S. informed Arab governments Tuesday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity,"

But the Palestinians rejected the American offer
The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospect that the Obama adminstration will cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council.
The United States has, however, been isolated in the 15-nation council. Virtually all

(visit the link for the full news article)

This can be pretty huge depending on how it plays out
Please read the entire article, it's pretty interesting.

In exchange for scuttling the Palestinian resolution, the United States would support the council statement, consider supporting a U.N. Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel's settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet.

This can change the facade of the entire political landscape, yes only the facade of it for now, at least it's a first step.

Though I am very pessimistic, i've seen glimmers of hope before but it always ended up being duds.

turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com (visit the link for the full news article)

If the US really does rebuke Israel this is great news!

The United States has, however, been isolated in the 15-nation council. Virtually all 14 other member states are prepared to support the Palestinian resolution, according to council diplomats.

Good! The US is finally feeling the pressure from almost the entire rest of the world that Israel is condemning an entire people, and has committed crimes against humanity. To see them supporting a basic criticism of Israel is very good news.

I agree with ModernAcademia however that I am still pessimistic about this - I don't feel the US will ever really commit to any real changes in the status quo, especially given they seem to be firmly backing Israel financially and politically despite considering supporting this resolution.

Here's my thoughts:

First, it's apparent something is going on we aren't aware of. We know that the Arab people are starting to unite and overthrow their leaders who were being paid by the US. So all of a sudden, one of our few friends in the mid-east is no longer our friend at all.

We know the US and Israel are not about to divorce each other as the perpetual oppressors and thorns in the sides of the middle eastern countries and cultures, most especially palestine, Iraq, Iran. It's all very chaotically connected, it seems to me, and you can't really effect one country (iraq invasion) without effecting the other mideast countries as well.

So why is the US going to make this statement against Israel?
-Blackmail perhaps?
If the Arab countries have been mounting evidence of the infiltration and overall garbage that is the US invasion of Iraq/Afghanistan and beyond, they may be begging to make a compromise with the Palestinians as to not have this information released.

-A clever trick?
It seems that this could be a little bit of a trick on the part of US and Israel to first give an appearance to the world of us/israel drifting apart from each other. The effect I'm supposing is because the US maybe is jockeying for a position in the mid east countries themselves. Instead of vicariously living through Israel, we'll just try and step in and "establish order", translated to "undermine those people whom live in said country, destroying their way of life for "democracy".

We've seen this before, a bait and switch tactic intended to maybe get the blessing of other countries (Lebanon, etc.) to come in and act like we're going to help.

Just some thoughts.
Either way this plan will never be effective, the people of the middle east are proud and will have no choice but to oppose more US invasion, (Egpyt is a worry for US going in to "help")

Or maybe the US is for real this time...maybe, maybe not.

For Palestine to reject the offer, the conditions in the "closed door offer" must be questionable.

Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, outlined the new U.S. offer in a closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Arab Group, a bloc of Arab countries from North Africa and the Middle East.

In exchange for scuttling the Palestinian resolution, the United States would support the council statement, consider supporting a U.N. Security Council visit to the Middle East, the first since 1979, and commit to supporting strong language criticizing Israel's settlement policies in a future statement by the Middle East Quartet.

From what I read, the only real issue is a visit to the Middle East by the U.N. Security Council. Other than that, we have "support the statement" and "commit to support strong language". Nothing of any consequence, as we would expect.

Perhaps I'm getting too used to these 14-1 votes on sanctions against Israel's occupation of Palestine with the U.S. being the 1 and holding a veto.

That being said, it will be interesting to follow.

the Billmeister

The sticking point is between 'does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity' and 'condemning the settlements as illegal'. The difference for Israel is 'prejudge the outcome of negotiations and will not be recognized by the international community'

So this all means that if US joins with the security council then Israel will likely lose a lot of ground and have to pay restitution to Palestinian in future peace negotiations. If US veto's then Israel will likely lose only a little bit of ground and will not have to pay, as much anyway. As for how the international community will view the US when using its veto for the first time against such a large majority may have these costs shifted else where. With closed door discussions there would be other stuff going on.

When I first read this with unanimous UN security council support that Israel does not have legitimacy in its settlements, the tide turned for me. Now it is just a matter of how much. The thought of peace in the area does feel a bit surreal with so much fighting and ongoing conflict for so long.

I wouldn't read too much into this. It was merely a diplomatic maneuver. The US knows that UN SecCon statements have no real weight. Meanwhile, the Palestinians are calling for a resolution declaring the settlements illegal.

So the US is willing to sign a statement saying it "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity" knowing that it is a worthless so that they can claim moral high ground against the Palestinians.

Wow, I so want to say, "I told you so," because I have had a very strong sense that the current administration (as with the two before the last one) is not as high on Israel as the last administration was (and am on record repeatedly saying so). However, that being said, I still don't quite yet trust that we know the whole story here yet. These people have been known to play against each other with staged moves before to appease or control. Dramatic turnaround indeed if this is how it appears on the surface. And not likely to be a very popular move with some. Something to keep watching.

I bet there will be an AIPAC funded letter going around congress and half of them will sign in protest to this move. Watch and see.

It seems as if the US government is all of the sudden distancing themselves from Israel. Now that Egypt's, US backed, puppet regime has fallen, and the political arena within the middle east is changing, the US government is losing its ringers.

Before, the US could walk all over the middle east because they had allies in strategic places that would allow it to happen. Now that these alliances are quickly diminishing and the US is losing its clout in the region. Backing Israel might not seem like a good idea anymore.

reply to post by mayabong


Many were offended, including AIPAC, when the Israeli housing ministry announced new settlements - when the Vice President literally landed in Israel. Unsurprisingly, the Israeli government - which is more like a deliberate provocative schism, is damaging many of their biggest supporters in America.

Obama is articulated enough to conclude the mood is changing in the Middle East and the United States must change with it, if its to maintain any credibility or influence in the region.

I know we have many Israeli supporters on ATS and despite Israel invading palistinian land (yes it's an invasion when you take someone elses home) they will always defend Israel for no logical reason. Israel could completely overtake all of the land there and these people would still defend Israel, of course anyone criticising Israels actions is called a anti-semite. I can't believe the USA would finally do the right thing but i hope they do.

It's a very old dance, lets see if the tune changes.

I get really cheesed off with the whole situation in Palestine and Israel, and especialy with the Israeli insistance on making things ten times harder than they have to be, by building settlements outside thier internationaly recognised borders.
The one thing that I think would solve it, would be a UN peacekeeping force, going in, knocking all the illegaly placed buildings outside of Israels border down, and carting the contstructors, and the people who commissioned the buildings in wilful disregard of the law, off to some jail or other. That would work a treat. If Israel could be forced to keep its defence efforts inside its borders also, and quit blockading starving people, that would help.

reply to post by TrueBrit


That would never happen, the mere suggestion of it won't happen because anyone who says it will be labelled a hate monger. However looking at the situation again something has come to mind.

Israel has grabbed so much land it is shocking, maybe they have finally gotten enough that the palestinians are marginalised and so they don't need as much US support, they have obtained most of their goals already. So the US condeming Israel (with Israels unofficial agreement) would garner international favour, putting the US in a superior position but still keeping Israel as an allie.

Originally posted by rogerstigers
I wouldn't read too much into this. It was merely a diplomatic maneuver.

spot on with the assessment.
It's political posturing.
Another lie in the sea of
US propaganda.

I can't wait until 50 years from now. When Israel and the US will be remembered like Nazi germany and Japan.
And us Canadians would be the Austrians who really had no choice but to accept our fate
If you really don't see the objective behind Israel you clearly have your eyes hidden by your hands...
Yeah sure, the arabs aren't innocent either. But with all the money, power and influence Israel has... it's clear THEY WANT WAR.
They are asking for it... Always throwing out threats.. Bulldozing Arabs houses...
I know people have said it before...
Nuke that whole piece of land, and make it so the Rad levels are so high that it would be inhabitable for at least a couple hundred years. Yeah sure the Jews need a home- last time I checked... Canada is the second biggest country in the world with only around 37 million people... WE HAVE TONS OF ROOM!!!!
Why don't they just take a chunk of Saskatchewan. They wouldn't have to bulldoze houses and could start a new holy land..
Oh wait, never mind I forgot, they plan on making the prophecies from the bible happen...
If any Jew was really good at heart they wouldn't even consider kicking people out their homes because apparently its 'their' land...
To the Jews it may concern...
WE HAVE TONS OF LAND FOR YOU HERE IN CANADA...
YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME TO LIVE HERE.
Something tells me, they are going to hold on to that piece of land until the biggest war this world has ever seen is unleashed...
ALL OVER SOME STUPID LAND IN THE DESSERT...
Here's one for you Semites.
If it says in the bible the 'last war' is going to happen, and all your neighbors are going to attack you and the messiah will come and fight with you in a war...
Why I ask... why not just surprise your lord when he arrives, and he sees that you have met peace, and that you as a people are 'good' at heart and not corrupted by material desires.
Free Palestine... Nuff Said.

Originally posted by tribaltrip
I can't wait until 50 years from now. When Israel and the US will be remembered like Nazi germany and Japan.

As much as i dislike US foreign policy i think it's utterly unfair to compare them to Nazi Germany and second world war era Japan.

Originally posted by tribaltrip
Yeah sure, the arabs aren't innocent either.

Really? So all of the arabs in the entire world are not innocent? That's some shocking racism. If you are speaking specifically about Palestinians then many of them are also innocent people.

Originally posted by tribaltrip
Nuke that whole piece of land, and make it so the Rad levels are so high that it would be inhabitable for at least a couple hundred years.

Doing such a thing would result in global problems, both political and environmental. The resultant cloud of radioactive dust would smother local countries, many of them innocent and worse the wind could blow it right back to the USA. Why are people like yourself so reckless in your ideas and so happy to kill?

Originally posted by tribaltrip
Yeah sure the Jews need a home- last time I checked... Canada is the second biggest country in the world with only around 37 million people... WE HAVE TONS OF ROOM!!!!

Maybe because they believe the land is holy, special. If they could just be moved somewhere else then don't you think it would have been suggested by a diplomat somewhere?

Originally posted by tribaltrip
Why don't they just take a chunk of Saskatchewan. They wouldn't have to bulldoze houses and could start a new holy land..

Yeah it doesn't quite work that way. I'm an atheist myself but i understand why some people think specific areas of land are sacred. I consider the ground we spread my grandfathers ashes on to be special for example.

Originally posted by tribaltrip
WE HAVE TONS OF LAND FOR YOU HERE IN CANADA...
YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME TO LIVE HERE.

Read above as to why this is a ridiculous suggestion.

Originally posted by tribaltrip
ALL OVER SOME STUPID LAND IN THE DESSERT...

Stupid to those who don't consider it holy, deadly serious to those who believe it is holy.

Originally posted by tribaltrip
Why I ask... why not just surprise your lord when he arrives, and he sees that you have met peace, and that you as a people are 'good' at heart and not corrupted by material desires.
Free Palestine... Nuff Said.

Again this is a religion, fundamentalist religion and fundamentalists don't tend to bend their beliefs to make life easier.

Sorry but your entire post stank of borderline bigotry, oh and just to be clear check above where i posted supporting palestine, so you can't accuse me of bias

reply to post by tribaltrip


If the US is ever remembered for being like Nazi Germany, the planet's surface will be a smoking radioactive ruin from the world war the US started and finished in a nuclear holocaust.

Pray that day never ever comes.

And pigs fly too.. The u.s will rebuke with one hand... And continue to give billions and weapons to the genocidal maniacs isreal with the other.. Typical u.s show for the world while carrying on with business as usual...

Thought you might be interested in this: Did Obama 'sell out' Israel?