Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

The United States found itself isolated among the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council on Friday when it was the sole nation to veto a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The 14 UNSC members other than the U.S., including Britain and France, supported the resolution, which follows Israel’s consistent defiance of international pressures to halt settlement activity in the disputed territories. Palestinian authorities have refused to return to the negotiating table unless settlement activity is halted.

The UNSC vote also left the U.S. exposed at a time when its influence over West Asia as a whole has been called into question. The recent civil unrest and upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain have been tinged with an element of anti-Americanism, particularly after the U.S. was seen as prevaricating over whether or not to condemn Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the early days of the Cairo protests.

On a conference call with journalists following the vote, U.S. Permanent Representative to the U.N. Susan Rice said while the U.S. considered continued settlement activity as “not legitimate... [and] corrosive to the peace process”, it also viewed the resolution as “unbalanced and one-sided”, and a measure that would likely harden positions and leave the two parties more entrenched and less willing to return promptly and constructively to direct negotiations.

In response to a question on the reaction of other UNSC members to the U.S.’ veto, Ms. Rice said other nations would “understand that the U.S. made an unprecedented and energetic good-faith effort to put forward an approach that would have advanced the process, taken us closer to the goal of a two-state solution, and would not have been the outcome that we saw today”.

However, according to reports, the Obama administration’s refusal to back the condemnatory resolution “riled” other members of the UNSC, with Britain, France and Germany releasing a joint statement reiterating their support for the resolution.

In that statement, they reportedly said they supported the resolution “because our views on settlements, including east Jerusalem, are clear: they are illegal under international law, an obstacle to peace, and constitute a threat to a two-state solution. All settlement activity, including in east Jerusalem, should cease immediately”.