Opposition to Proposed UN Security Council Resolution Condemning Israeli Settlements Grows, Union for Reform Judaism and ARZA Issue Statement Urging Opposition to the Resolution

Following on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s opposition to Palestinian efforts to have the UN Security Council condemn Israeli settlements, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) and it’s Zionist arm the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) have issued a statement opposing passage of the draft resolution, which was submitted by Lebanon.

The URJ and ARZA “support the official statement by the United States that the UN Security Council is not the proper forum for discussions of the peace process, and that the proposed resolution would not be a "productive step."  The URJ and ARZA call upon the United States to stop this proposed resolution from being brought to the Security Council for a vote and, if this fails, to use veto power to prevent passage of this resolution.” The statement goes on to say: 

“Our collective voice may be strong, but it is stronger when backed up with the voices of people in the pews!  Send President Obama a message from the contact page on the White House website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.  Please make the following points:

• Thank you for standing up for Israel
• Please continue to prevent the proposed Lebanese Resolution condemning Israel from coming to the UN Security Council
• If the resolution does get to the Council, please use our veto to prevent passage of the resolution”

In an editorial published on January 26th in the Wall Street Journal, Alan Dershowitz writes the following about the proposed resolution:

“There is a big difference between a government action being unwise, which the Israeli policy is, and being illegal, which it is not. Indeed, 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.”

Dershowitz continued:

“The current draft of the proposed resolution condemns "all Israeli settlement activities." Read literally, this condemnation would extend to the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and those areas that even the Palestinian Authority concedes must remain under Israeli control. Israel will not, and should not, return "all" such territories. The U.S. does not believe it should, nor do reasonable Palestinians.

So what then is the purpose of the utterly unrealistic resolution now under consideration? It simply gives cover to those Palestinians who do not want to sit down and negotiate directly with Israel. It is also a stalking horse for the Palestinian effort to secure a further U.N. resolution unilaterally declaring Palestinian statehood—a result that neither Israel nor the U.S. would recognize.”

Other groups calling for opposition to the proposed resolution include Stand With Us, which has published a sample letter for use in writing to President Obama and other elected officials.