As most readers know, the Palestinian Authority is planning to go to the UN next month and asked that the Palestinians state be recognized with the 1967 borders. Sadly, the US has made clear its intention to: 1) veto any such recognition in the UN Security Council, 2) Oppose any such vote in the UN General Assembly, and 3) heavily pressure the PA and other countries to stop such a move.
The remarkably weak justification for opposing a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines (which is something US policy has called for for DECADES) is that the US does not support unilateral action. However, this position ignores the obvious fact that the entire Israeli settlement enterprise is built on unilateral action.
Over the last week, Israel has taken steps to dramatically expand the settlements. The steps include the announcement of massive new settlement construction in expanded “Jerusalem,” whose municipal limits Israel massively expanded to cut deeply into the West Bank:
- 930 new units in the Har Homa settlement (southeast “Jerusalem”).
- 1,600 units in Ramat Shlomo (northeast “Jerusalem”) (Israel announce a separate settlement expansion here timed to humiliate VP Biden's call for peace during his trip to Israel)
- 700 units in Pisgat Zeev (also northeast “Jerusalem”)
- 2,000 units in Givat HaMatos (southern “Jerusalem”)
All told, over 5,000 new units to house tens of thousands of new settlers were approved. The US, as it always does, expressed disappointment with these new settlements, but took no actual action. Indeed, the only action the US has taken with regard to the settlements is to offer them protection at the UN by vetoing a broadly-supported condemnation.
Hence, the US’s official position is to support the creation of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and to oppose the unilateral Israel settlement of Palestinian. However, the US’s actual position has been to protect the settlements and block the creation of a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders.
These settlements are killing a two-state solution. As Hussein Ibish recently laid out, the settlements are an intentional provocation and are an attempt to entirely cut off East Jerusalem from the West Bank:
It is a shiny hilltop redoubt with only one entrance, in many ways reminiscent of a fortified castle. It cuts so deeply into the West Bank that it towers directly over Bethlehem, one of the most important Palestinian cities, and the new housing units will occupy an additional ridge. If completed, Har Homa would almost close the ring of settlements cutting off the rest of the West Bank from East Jerusalem
Additionally, the settlements cut deeply into the West Bank, and with other major settlements like Ma'ale Adumim (map) split the remaining West Bank into two separate units. These settlements make a two-state solution impossible.
IF the US’s true position is to support a two state solution, it really has only one option: it must reject the unilateral Israeli settlement of East Jerusalem and the West Bank and support recognition of the Palestinian state inside the 1967 lines at the UN in September. Any other action commits the US to continue support the settlements, and guarantees that no two-state solution is possible. In such a case Palestinians will soon begin demanding their civil and political rights inside a single, inseparable state in all of historic Palestine. If this is what the US wants, it is on the right track. But if the US truly supports a two-state solution, it must make its actions match its position. It needs to support a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines at the UN in September.