World Beginning to Put Limits on «Israel»

Local Editor

Friday's UN Security Council resolution condemning the "Israeli" entity's illegal settlement policies may not result in immediate changes on the ground, but it does signal that the international community had not changed its expectations that any future agreement will involve an "Israeli" withdrawal from the West Bank.

Santa Obama delivered a wonderful Christmas present to the "Israeli" entity when the US opted not to veto Friday's United Nation Security Council vote condemning settlement policy.

The passage of the resolution won't result in the immediate dismantling of any West Bank settlements, but the world is beginning to come to the rescue and try to save Israeli from itself.

And the passage of the resolution by a vote of 14 in favor with one abstention - that of the US -- shows that finally the United Nations is uniting. Among the 15 votes cast, that American abstention, instead of a veto, was the most important vote cast.

About a year ago a document from "Israel" Occupation Forces [IOF] Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot spelling out IOF strategy warned of worrying trends in the West. Support for the use of military force, it warned, would be more difficult to obtain and more selective and limited than in the past when it comes to maintaining "Israeli" control in the territories.

The concerns that the IOF expressed are coming to fruition. Even without sanctions from the United Nations, European countries can now rely on Friday's resolution, Resolution 2334, to justify disrupting "Israeli" wartime efforts such as delaying weapons shipments from their ports or airspace.

The failure of "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy with regard to the Security Council Resolution is crystal clear.

The international community is signaling that no creation of purported facts on the ground, in the form of illegal settlement construction, will change expectations of an "Israeli" withdrawal as part of an agreement.

The illegal settlements may be part of the internal "Israeli" rules of the game, but they have no sway anywhere else in the world. The "Israeli" entity's annexation of East al-Quds [Jerusalem] and the Golan Heights had not received any international support.

By the same token, the Knesset could legislate that there are 25 hours in a day, and it would have the same effect for the rest of the world.

Residents of West Bank settlements such as War Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg may have achieved the highest ranks of public office in the "Israeli" entity, but as the rest of the world sees it, these people are accessories to a violation of international norms.

As the apartheid regime faces the relocation of residents of the unauthorized outpost of "Amona", how will it now build alternative West Bank settlements for them when any settlement construction has now been deemed as a violation of Friday's UN Security Council resolution?

On the tactical level as well, the UN vote is a resounding defeat for the "Israeli" regime, as Netanyahu earns himself a place of infamy in the diplomatic hall of fame. This saga will become a lesson that new recruits to the "Israeli" foreign service will have to study in the context of how not to conduct foreign policy.

Netanyahu's frequent digs at the Democratic Party in the United States and President Barack Obama in particular will be held against him in the long term, and shall be dredged up at the appropriate time.

Netanyahu has been playing a diplomatic chess game recently with Obama that will end in a checkmate. Netanyahu scored a temporary and illusory victory on Thursday when he lobbied to get the vote on the resolution deferred. Obama left it up to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to decide whether his country would have the resolution put to a vote.

The "Israeli" entity under Netanyahu had been portrayed as an empty vessel. In one of his moments of euphoria amid the fear, Netanyahu boasted that he always gets what he wants.

But he wraps up his eight years with Obama with a resounding 0-2 loss in the championships against both Iran and Palestine.

Netanyahu had had a wealth of diplomatic experience in the course of his career of thus far, 11 years as prime minister. But he had also wrecked what little was left of the Foreign Ministry. And the combination of foolish policy and poor management are among the signs of collapse of Netanyahu's diplomatic infrastructure.

Obama assumed office with a demand for an "Israeli" settlement construction freeze. Netanyahu was afraid of the new president and gave in. Obama is ending his presidency in similar fashion. As expected, the president waited until after the US election.

It would be easy to imagine what would have happened if the steps at the Security Council had been taken in September or October and had been followed by Clinton's loss to Trump.

Source: Haaretz, Edited by website team