Just a few days after the United Nations Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements, Jerusalem’s municipal government signaled that it would not back down: The city intends to approve 600 housing units in the predominantly Palestinian eastern section of town on Wednesday in what a top official called a first installment on 5,600 new homes.
.. The prime minister defended his retaliation. “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek,” he said. “This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.”
.. Israeli officials said such pronouncements showed that the resolution actually undermined chances for a negotiated settlement because the Palestinians now have less incentive to come to the table. By declaring Israeli settlements illegal, they said, the United Nations essentially took away the one chip that Israel had to trade, meaning land.
.. In 2009, the year Mr. Obama took office, 297,000 people lived in West Bank settlements and 193,737 in East Jerusalem. That increased to 386,000 in the West Bank by the end of last year and 208,000 in East Jerusalem by the end of 2014
Israelis Wonder How Long Netanyahu Can Back Settlements and Two-State Solution
For years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, a conservative, has played a double act, competing domestically with his right-wing rivals in backing the settlement project all over the occupied West Bank while professing support for a two-state solution with the Palestinians.
.. The Israeli right, feeling empowered by the advent of the Trump administration, which is expected to be more sympathetic to Israel’s current policies, is pushing Mr. Netanyahu to abandon the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, long considered the only viable solution to the conflict.
.. Naftali Bennett, the leader of the pro-settlement Jewish Home party in Mr. Netanyahu’s governing coalition, with whom Mr. Netanyahu and his Likud Party compete for votes, is goading him to take on more extreme positions like annexing parts of the West Bank
.. The Foreign Ministry summoned ambassadors of countries that had voted in favor of the resolution for personal meetings with ministry officials in Jerusalem, despite the Christmas holiday, which some of those countries celebrate.
.. In a highly unusual move, Mr. Netanyahu, who is also the foreign minister, summoned the American ambassador
.. They also pointed to Mr. Netanyahu’s increasingly vocal backing of the settler cause. That includes his advancement of highly contentious legislation, known as the Regulation Bill, that would retroactively legalize settler outposts and homes built on privately owned Palestinian land
.. Mr. Netanyahu and his attorney general had warned that the bill, which recently passed a first reading in Parliament, contravenes international law and could land Israeli officials in the defendant dock of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
.. “After he said it, he rushed to vote in favor of the bill. Why?” Mr. Caspit wrote. “Because of Bennett. The fear of the possibility that he would not be able to siphon seats from Bennett next time on Election Day
.. Even Haggai Segal, a prominent settler and the editor in chief of a right-wing newspaper, Makor Rishon, wrote in recent months that the Regulation Bill had “no chance” because it would be invalidated by Israel’s Supreme Court and would be used by the International Criminal Court “to incriminate Israel for war crimes.”
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu Summons U.S. Ambassador in Protest at U.N. Resolution
Prime Minister speaks to Daniel Shapiro about the U.S. abstention that resulted in a censure of Israeli settlements
Israel expressed its consternation to U.S. ambassador Daniel Shapiroat a meeting in the prime minister’s office, insisting the resolution wouldn’t help to bring Israelis and Palestinians together for talks
.. a U.S. State Department spokesperson confirmed that Messrs. Netanyahu and Shapiro were scheduled to meet Sunday
.. “Acts such as these hinder peace and [do] not promote it. That was the message,”
.. “We have no doubt that the Obama administration initiated it, stood behind it, coordinated on the wording and demanded that it be passed,” Mr. Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting
.. he has also overseen an increase of more than 100,000 settlers since winning power for the second time in 2009.
How Did Israeli Settlements Become a Legally Contentious Issue at the UN?
It is occurring in Syria, where Sunni Arabs are being systematically replaced by Shiites from Iraq and other countries in order to alter the demographic makeup of the Syrian state, in accordance with the interests of Iran. Tehran wants a Shiite belt from its western border to the Mediterranean in order to establish its hegemony in the Middle East.