UN no enforcement mechanism to stop Israel settlements: Analyst

Israel’s illegal construction of settlements will not end despite a call for halt at the UN Security Council, made possible by President Barack Obama’s green light, an analyst says.

On Friday, the Obama administration refused to veto a UN Security Council resolution against Israel’s settlement constructions against the backdrop of a long row between the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the so-called two-state solution as well as Iran’s nuclear deal.

 In an interview with Press TV on Saturday, Chicago-based author and radio host Stephen Lendman sounded pessimistic about the outcome of the resolution, which “accuses Israel of constructing illegal settlements.”

He noted that “all the settlements in the Palestinian territory are illegal. It’s not that any of these countries are saying it.”

Over half a million Israelis live in more than 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem al-Quds.

The American author argued that even in the US, support for internationally illegal settlements is illegal, citing the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution, based on which “any international law that America is a signatory to, is automatically US Constitutional law.”

He further predicted that the resolution will fail to force Israel to terminate the constructions, especially because a pro-Israel president, Donald Trump, is set to control the White House after Obama.

Apart from that, the Tel Aviv regime is in the habit of issuing dismissals when facing pressure from international bodies like the UN.

“It’s done that since 1948,” Lendman said. “So, there’s no reason to believe Israel will change what it’s been doing; it’ll continue doing it and it gets away with it because the UN is no enforcement mechanism that can pass all the resolutions in the world. But if they can’t enforce them, they’re meaningless.”

“Israel does what it wants with full US support and Obama may have wanted to give Netanyahu a black eye… but in a month he will be gone and Trump will be in so this was the last chance to do something like this.”

Relations between Obama and Bibi soured, in part, over a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, including the US, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Ties have been further strained over Netanyahu’s resistance to the creation of a Palestinian state, which has been a key element of the Obama administration’s foreign policy.

The Tel Aviv regime has defied international calls to stop its illegal construction activities, with its settlement expansion being among the main reasons behind the collapse of the last round of the so-called Middle East peace talks in 2014.

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