U.N. Spanks Israel

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 20, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

            Echoing calls by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon insisted that Israeli building in occupied lands is illegal and must be stopped.  When Ban talks of “occupied lands,” he’s referring to territory seized by Israel as a spoil of the 1967 Six-Day War.  Attacked by eight Arab countries, Israel repelled Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria.  When the dust cleared June 10, 1967, Israel controlled Jordan’s West Bank and East Jerusalem, Egypt’s Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula and Syria’s Golan Heights.  Whether liked or not by the U.N., Ban knows the rules of war:  To the victor goes the lands of the vanquished or spoils of war, a calculated gamble of those choosing war to settle disputes.  Israel didn’t ask for war but defended itself from attempted annihilation. 

               Despite living in Egyptian, Jordanian or Syrian lands, Palestinians had no legal claim of sovereignty prior to the Six-Day War.  Only after Israel took the territory from Egypt, Jordan and Syria, the Palestinians staked legal claim to the territory, referring to Israeli “occupation.”  Before the Six-Day War, Palestinians made no claims of Egyptian, Jordanian or Syrian “occupation,” despite forced into refugee camps after WWII, before declaring independence in 1948.  U.N. or U.S. officials want to continue a land-for-peace swap, after Israel relinquished control of the Sinai Peninsula in 1978 and the Gaza Strip in Sept. 12, 1975.  While not liking Israeli settlement activity, calling it “illegal” ignores the historical record, where the land was clearly seized as a spoil of the 1967 War.  U.N officials should work to mend the current Palestinian civil war, started June 14, 2007 when Hamas seized the Gaza Strip.

               Israel didn’t help itself when Interior Minister Eli Yishai announced plans March 10 to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem Ramat Shlomo subdivision during Biden’s peace trip on “proximity talks.”  When Secretary of State Clinton reacted harshly to Israeli plans, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to apologize.  Israel’s PR problems went from bad to worse after 16-year-old rock-throwing Palestinian teenager Mohammed Qadus was shot by Israeli forces March 20.  After visiting March 20, Ban rejected Israel’s distinction between the West Bank and East Jerusalem, referring to both as “occupied territories.”  “The world has condemned Israel’s settlement plans in East Jerusalem,” said Ban on a brief tour.  “Let us be clear.  All settlement activity is illegal anywhere in the occupied territory and must be stopped,” repeating the same factually false talking points.

              Whether Ban admits it or not, he knows that land won during armed conflict between warring nations becomes the victor’s territory until a negotiated return.  Before Israel’s creation in 1948, Jerusalem, Jordan’s West Bank and much of the Holy Land was under British control.  When the League of Nations, the predecessor to the U.N., granted independence of Israel, Jordan and Syria in 1948, the Holy Land was occupied by various Christian, Jewish and Muslim groups and considered somewhat nonaligned territory.  Instead of accusing Israel of “illegal” activity, Ban should invite all aggrieved parties to the bargaining table, supervising discussions leading to eventual bilateral peace talks.  His own rhetoric displays precisely why the U.N. can’t be an impartial broker, instead relying on the so-called Quartet, involving the U.S., Russia, European Union and U.N. for eventual peace talks.    

            Despite close ties to the U.S., Israel knows that only the U.S. can supervise peace talks with the Palestinians.  Too many U.N. members harbor animosity toward Israel, having created in only 62 years one of the most industrialized and technologically sophisticated countries on the planet.  U.S., European and Russian Jewish influence propelled Israel to unprecedented achievements, leaving Palestinians and other Arab states unable to keep pace.  When U.N. officials, like Ban, accuse Israel of “illegal” activity and ignore the history, it harms the peace process.  Ban wouldn’t display the same bias if his native South Korea was forced by a North Korean invasion to extend the Demilitarized Zone beyond the 38th parallel.  He’d get that the expanded DMZ was South Korea’s spoil due to unprovoked aggression.  Returning to the 38th parallel would come only from negotiation.

            Calling Israeli building activities on spoils from the 1967 War “illegal” ignores the rules of war, awarding the victor territory of the vanquished.  Palestinians made no claims of sovereignty or “occupation” when the land was territory, before the Six-Day War, of Egypt, Jordan and Syria.  Instead of accusing Israel of “illegal” activity, the U.N. should accept the history and set the conditions for the negotiated return of spoils of the Six-Day War.  All U.N. resolutions, including 242, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, are designed to return Israeli territory back to the pre-1967 borders.  Whether admitted to or not, Israel should be negotiating with Jordan and Syria—not the Palestinians—as they did with Egypt in 1978 and 2005, returning any seized land.   While there’s nothing wrong with expecting Israel to show good faith and stop building on its spoils, the U.N. must accept history and stop pointing fingers.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.