Vetoing an Egyptian-crafted resolution demanding the United States rescind its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, U.S. Amb. Nikki Haley asserted the U.S. sovereign right to place its embassy wherever it chooses. Since 71-year-old President Donald Trump announced Dec. 6 that the U.S. would implement a law recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Muslim world cried foul, demanding Trump reverse his decision. Since Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day-War, the Muslim world has railed against Israel’s annexation of territory captured during the Six-Day-War. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestine Liberation Organization attacked Israel June 5, 1967 with the intent of destroying the May 11,1949 U.N.-approved state, only one year after Israel accepted the British Mandate of Palestine, declaring independence May 14, 1948.
Controlling all of Jerusalem since June 10, 1967 infuriates Muslim states, especially those that lost the Six-Day-War. When Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq attacked Israel, they knew the risks, especially of losing territory. Losing Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s West Bank and East Jerusalem and Syria’s Golan Heights were the consequence of going to war against Israel. Intensive negotiations with Israel won Egypt back the Sinai Peninsula in 1979. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave back the Gaza Strip in 1994, leaving only the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in Israel’s hands. Palestinians have entered several rounds of U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel, all ending in failure. Several U.S. presidents have spent untold millions on peace efforts all to no avail, leaving the Trump administration in the same place.
To induce Palestinians back to the peace table, Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital for the expressed purpose of restarting peace talks and helping Palestinians negotiate for a future state, including getting East Jerusalem as their capital. Today’s vetoed U.N. Security Council Resolution demands the U.S. rescind its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital violates U.S. sovereignty. If the U.S. chooses to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, it’s not up to the U.N. or anyone else to violate U.S. sovereignty. When the anti-Israel crowd talks about violation U.N. Resolutions, they’re talking about forcing Israel to return to the pre-1967 borders in exchange for recognition by Muslim states. Returning land to Egypt seized during the Six-Day-War didn’t change Palestinians’ demands for to Israel vacate all land seized in order to gain recognition or an eventual peace treaty.
Arab states should have considered the consequences of attacking Israel in 1967 and 1973. Rules or war and legal parameters related to the 1949 Geneva Convention spell out the risks of war, including losing territory. Trump’s Dec. 6 decision to implement a U.S. law recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital infringes on no one. No U.N. sovereign state has to agree with the U.S. decision but all must recognize U.S. foreign policy is not dictated by the U.N. or any other international body. “What we witnessed here in the Security Council is an insult.. It won’t be forgotten,” said U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley. Instead of anti-U.S. resolutions, the Security Council should work on a real Mideast peace plan. No sovereign state has to agree with Trump’s decision. At the same time, no global body or sovereign state can tell the U.S. whom to recognize or where it decides to put an embassy.
U.N. Security Council’s heard mentality fails to see the legal issues related to the U.S. right to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or to move its embassy. Prior Security Council resolutions demanding Israel return to the pre-1967 borders have no legal basis in international law. “To the victor goes the vanquished,” in any armed conflict governed by Geneva Convention and rules of war. Borders and sovereign territory change with most armed conflicts. Yet a coalition of Muslim states don’t accept those realities when if comes to Israel or their defeat. If Muslim states wanted to keep East Jerusalem they should have thought about the consequences of war when they attacked Israel June 5, 1967. Trump’s decision wasn’t intended to slap Muslims in the face. It was intended to recognize the U.S. sovereign right exercise its own foreign policy, free from outside influence.
All U.N. resolutions dictating what Israel should do with spoils of the 1967 War do not reflect the rules of war or the 1949 Geneva Convention. Russian President Vladimr Putin isn’t returning Crimea to Ukraine, because the U.N. demands he return Ukraine’s sovereign territory. No one on the Security Council demands a resolution to return Crimea back to Ukraine, especially knowing Russia would veto it. At the same time, autocrats like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can demand Jerusalem return to Muslims but he has no authority since the Ottoman Empire lost Jerusalem after WW I. “The United States has a sovereign right to determine where and whether we establish an embassy,” said Haley. “I suspect very few member states would welcome Security Council pronouncements about their sovereign decisions,” telling the Security Council they’re out-of-line.
