In “rapping” J Street for its statement calling on the U.S. not to veto a pending UN Security Council resolution critical of Israel’s West Bank settlements (“New UN Settlements Fight Rages; J Street Rapped,” Jan. 27), Rep. Gary Ackerman severely misconstrues J Street’s position. J Street does not, as Ackerman alleges, “place the whole responsibility for the current impasse in the peace process on Israel.”
On the contrary, as its statement makes clear, J Street hopes never to see Israel publicly taken to task by the UN. “Our preferred outcome would be Israeli or American action that averts the need for such a resolution” — Israel by stopping settlement growth and the U.S. by more concerted leadership and vision to resolve the conflict.
However, if, failing such action, this resolution comes before the UN Security Council later this year, it would severely degrade U.S. diplomatic credibility and ignore the urgency of the situation for the U.S. to use its veto. It would be anomalous, to say the least, to veto a resolution that is very closely in line with America’s own policy regarding settlements for more than 40 years, across eight administrations of both parties, and that expresses support for a two-state solution and calls on both parties to create the conditions necessary for peace.
J Street
Manhattan
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