Barack Obama’s last act, and possibly one of his best, as US President will be to abstain, that is to refuse to veto, a UN Security Council resolution demanding a halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories. It is not what Donald Trump would have done. It is also a change of direction for Obama – the US vetoed a similar resolution in 2011.
Since that time Israeli illegal settlement building has accelerated. And the vote is a welcome show of opposition to the Israeli right-wing government’s recent attempt to legislate in favour of settlement building, spurred on by the election of Trump.
As we reported last month:
“Avigdor Lieberman [Defence Minister] has said that the government's main aim should be to ally itself closely to Donald Trump. Many Israeli chauvinists see Trump's election as a green light for an expanded settlement-building programme, which Barack Obama's administration opposed, albeit mealy-mouthedly. However, they are concerned not to be seen to be reckless, and are eager to work out an agreement with Trump. Lieberman said: ‘Anyone who fears for the future of the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria [the Israeli nationalist right's term for the West Bank] understands that at this moment the most important thing is to coordinate positions with the new American administration. This is the first time there's a right-wing government in Israel, a Republican president and a Republican majority in the Senate and Congress, so facts on the ground must not be created and the incoming administration must not be embarrassed’.
“...Although figures like Lieberman have flirted with genocidal discourse and come close to advocating ethnic cleansing, the pragmatic strategy of the Israeli nationalist right is not to exterminate the Palestinians, but to use settlement expansion as a means to establish a ‘Greater Israel’ as a fixed reality, and snuff out any possibility of an independent Palestinian state. Those Palestinians who do not wish to be second-class citizens in a Greater Israel will need to be subjugated into acceptance.”
The vote in the UN can thus be seen as an attempt to impede this new and dangerous alliance between Trump and the Israeli right-wing. It should also be a boost to Palestinian solidarity, the Israeli left and the peace movement.