Pompeo visits Jewish settlement in West Bank

Late Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery once said, “What Israel feared most is peace and not war.” It is, perhaps, this mentality of Israel that impedes all efforts to reach a just solution to the decades-old problem. The world witnessed many other issues after the Arab-Israeli conflict. Most of those conflicts are now part of history and parties to the conflict have moved on. Kosovo, Bosnia and South Sudan, etc., are now full-fledged members of the United Nations and managing their own affairs as sovereign countries. Any issues concerning Israel, the US has never failed to stand by it and it has used over 36 vetoes in favour of Israel, rejecting as many motions by other countries against its closest ally.

And the Palestine-Israeli issue is left pestering with no settlement for so long.

Despite the current uncertainty in his own country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has toured a Jewish settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank – the first such visit by a top US official. The trip to Psagot came a year after reversing a long-held US position. The declaration outraged Palestinians, who oppose settlements on land they claim for a future independent state. Pompeo later paid a similar visit to the occupied Golan Heights. President Donald Trump, last year, officially recognised Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau, which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and annexed in 1981. Trump is a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and analysts say Pompeo’s actions could be seen as a valedictory gesture before he and the President leave the world stage.

It is a well-known fact that it is only the US, and not the UN, which can bring about an everlasting peaceful settlement in Israel; but unfortunately, the US will never play a neutral role when its closest ally is involved. How long is the UN going to watch the sufferings of the helpless Palestinians?

S. H. MOULANA