Quite an accusation, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's suggesting our President Barack Obama is behind the UN Resolution condemning Israel for building settlements in the West Bank.
I tend to think there is substance to it, to the suggestion the U.S. was a key player in the drafting of Resolution 2334. Rather than sit on the sidelines through the whole thing, perhaps the U.S. did at least weigh in on what it thought should go into the resolution.
Doesn't all this make us wonder whether Israel should be building settlements in the West Bank? Is it right? Or is it wrong? By abstaining from the vote, it signals Obama believes the settlements wrong.
And, the international community thinks the settlements wrong. So, are they?
Israel took over the land in the 1967 war. The Geneva Convention forbids building settlements on conquered lands. But, Israel maintains it was Jordan, not Palestine, that occupied the West Bank before the 1967 war, and that Jordan has declined the land. Plus, I believe, Israel also points to its right to the land going back further in history.
It is an issue that would be good to study, more. For now? I tend to agree with Netanyahu, that Israel is justified in settling the land.
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