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The UN Gangs Up on Israel - Again

(Wall Street Journal) Alan M. Dershowitz - I strongly believe that the United States should veto a resolution currently before the UN Security Council that would declare illegal "all Israeli settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." The very Security Council resolution on which proponents of the condemnation rely makes it clear that the legal status of Israel's continued occupation isn't settled. Passed in 1967, Resolution 242 (which I played a very small role assisting then-UN Ambassador Arthur Goldberg in drafting) calls for Israel to return "territories" captured during its defensive war of 1967. The words "all" and "the" were proposed by those who advocated a complete return, but the U.S. and Great Britain, which opposed that view, prevailed. Even partial return of captured territories is conditioned on "termination of all claims of belligerency" and "acknowledgment of the sovereignty...of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." It would be wrong for the Security Council retroactively to rewrite Resolution 242, which is the foundation for a two-state solution - Israel and Palestine - 44 years after it was enacted. The writer is a law professor at Harvard.
2011-01-26 09:00:56
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