Tabnak – It has not been a long time since the former US administration joined the other members of the UN Security Council to denounce Israel for its policy of settlements expansion. However, in its latest move to show a more pro-Israeli approach, the new US administration objected the appointment of a former Palestinian official to a critical post in the UN.
According to the international media, the US has declared its objection to the appointment of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad as the head of the UN political mission in Libya. While the US claims that choosing Fayyad is a political move to increase the pressure on Israel, the UN Secretary general Antonio Guterres insists that the choice has been based just on Fayyad’s personal merits.
Declaring the US position on Fayyad’s nomination for the post, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN accused the United Nations to be "unfairly biased in favor of the Palestinian Authority” for too long. She also stressed that "going forward, the United States will act, not just talk, in support of our allies”, namely Israel.
Although successive US administrations have always supported Israel with every political, military, financial and diplomatic means, it seems that the new administration headed by President Donald Trump has committed itself to an even more proactive policy toward supporting Israel.
In fact, such an approach has been clearly visible since the very first day of Trump’s presidency. Vowing to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem during his electoral campaign, Trump came under heavy criticisms when it appeared that he is really considering such a move after taking the office. Although he later retreated from his initial fast-track approach to the issue, but his determination to drastically change Obama’s policy on Israel is an undeniable fact.
Building upon this opportunity provided by Trump’s reluctance to keep the pressure on Israel, the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) recently voted in favor of settlements expansion in the Palestinian territories, a move that caused a huge wave of criticism around the world.
Now it appears that in parallel with giving a green light to Israel’s more aggressive settlements policy, the second part of Donald Trump’s strategy is trying to isolate Palestine internationally by preventing the Palestinian former and current officials to have a real presence in international structures, especially the UN.
Another important point to mention in this regard is that today, an Israeli newspaper, Maariv published a report claiming that the UN Secretary General is considering the appointment of the Former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as his deputy, a move that could be interpreted as an appeasement to Israel to ease the objections to Fayyad’s nomination.
Although the report was soon denied by the official Israeli media, it could be regarded as an indirect message from the Israeli side that if you would like to give a role to the Palestinians to play in the UN, you should give us more! It is especially in line with Haley’s remarks on an "unfairly biased” approach in the UN against Israel.
All in all, it has so far become clear that the new US administration wants to demonstrate a new age of US-Israeli "special partnership” by taking such an all-round supportive approach toward Tel-Aviv. However, it is almost certain that the very least result of such a policy would be further complicating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and taking a step backward in line of politically resolving the issue.
