Israeli media reports that the US President Barack Obama has told his Israeli counterpart, Reuven Rivlin, during his visit to Washington, that the US is not able to block international anti-Israel initiatives, as it used to do over the last decades. If these reports are true, it would certainly be a step in the right direction. Allegedly the US President justified this policy change by saying that Israel failed to provide guarantees that can be used by Washington to justify its bias towards Tel Aviv.
Just recently, Israeli authorities approved the establishment of 82 housing units in Ramat Shlomo settlement on Shuafat territories (a Palestinian Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem), as part of a plan to build one thousand units, which was previously rejected by Washington. The question is — if a resolution is drafted to the UN Security Council, calling Israel to stop its illegal settlement, will the US then really let it pass, as Obama said. Or it will get blocked by John Kerry to face the same destiny as other initiatives have over the last three years, whether with use of diplomatic pressure in the global sphere, or by threatening to use the veto right.
Bring those who attack Palestinians to justice, #Obama tells Israel https://t.co/Esu3z3VA4w | #Palestine
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) December 14, 2015
However, we should bear in mind that some Israeli officials recently stated that Israel is taking any further steps without coordination with the US administration. Israel wouldn't feel completely free expanding its settlements and committing all their continuous violations of international law without the Washington's support and the inaction of Europeans, who do nothing other than talk.
Therefore, if Barack Obama really wants to make a substantial change, the US should join the overwhelming majority of the international community that rejects occupation and settlement, in order to adopt a brave mandatory resolution in the Security Council that calls to end the occupation and denies all its measures in the occupied lands, including settlement activities, as well as enabling the Palestinian people to settle their state on their soil, recognizing Jerusalem as its capital.
