Will Democrats Finally End Their Support For West Bank Settlements? (Part 2)

By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet. Posted June 9, 2009.

In that clause, the resolution refers to the illegal settlements euphemistically as "Israeli population centers." More significantly, the resolution refers to these settlements as being "in Israel," in effect recognizing their annexation.

With this kind of history, no wonder Netanyahu thinks he can get away with defying Obama's admonition to stop expanding settlements and why he is so shocked that Obama has gone as far as he has.

Obama himself appears to have already accepted Israeli annexation of settlements containing the majority of Israeli settlers that are in and around East Jerusalem, the only ones that have already been formally annexed into Israel. These settlements are just as illegal as those elsewhere on the West Bank, according the Fourth Geneva Convention.

In addition, the four U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw from its settlements specifically contain the clause "including East Jerusalem," and there are an additional series of U.N. Security Council resolutions formally declaring Israel's annexation of the occupied eastern half of the city and its environ "null and void."

As problematic as Obama's acquiescence to Israel's illegal annexation may be, however, there are at least some scenarios for a final peace settlement in which Israel could hold onto most of the settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem in return for an equivalent area currently recognized as being within Israel south of the Gaza Strip.

By contrast, the settlements traditionally defended by congressional Democrats include not just these but settlement blocs that go far beyond even Israel's greatly extended interpretation of what constitutes greater Jerusalem, which could realistically be exchanged in a land swap, dividing the West Bank into a series of noncontiguous cantons surrounded by Israel.

Indeed, it appears that Democratic Party strategy all along has been identical to that of the Republicans: to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and to support the Israeli right in its expansionist agenda.

In fact, Pelosi, Kerry, Berman, Hoyer and other Democratic leaders were on record explicitly opposing Palestinian statehood well into the 1990s, dropping their objections only after the Israeli government -- then under the moderate Labor Party leadership -- expressed its support for such a two-state solution.

The question, then, is whether the Democrats will back their president in his call for a freeze on settlements or continue to ally with congressional Republicans in opposing any U.S. efforts to enforce Israel's international obligations and make the necessary steps for peace by withdrawing from these illegal settlements.

One of Congress' strongest supporters of Israeli settlements is now secretary of state and appears to have changed her tune. As a senator, Rodham Clinton spoke at a pro-settlements rally in front of the United Nations and was the chief pro-settlements resolution promoter against the World Court in 2004.

On May 27, 2009, though, she declared: "With respect to settlements, the president was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interests of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly, not only to the Israelis but to the Palestinians and others. And we intend to press that point."

Whether the Obama administration will be willing to "press the point" in more than words and actually withhold aid and engage in other concrete measures to enforce this sentiment may depend on the willingness of the American public to back him up and make clear that reversal in the Democrats' longstanding support for Israel's settlements policy is long overdue. 

See more stories tagged with: war, israel, peace, foreign policy, palestine, west bank, barack obama, un, gaza

Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and chairman of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco and serves as a senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus.

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