US President-elect Donald Trump’s tweet in reaction to the speech by outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry, who sharply rebuked Israel, was pleasing music to many Israeli ears. “Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!” Trump wrote. Trump is promising to teach the United Nations a lesson. When he occupies the Oval Office, the United Nations will not dare treat Israel with “such total disdain and disrespect.” Trump will squash UN Security Council Resolution 2334 condemning the settlements and leave it on the rubbish heap of history. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will prove to all those leftists claiming that his policies will result in Israel’s international isolation that our prime minister can isolate the world. All he has to do is be patient a little longer and wait for Obama to get out of his face.
Not so. Netanyahu's message that Jan. 21 will mark the end of eight cursed years and the start of four auspicious ones is a lie. Hope that Trump the Messiah will provide the settlement enterprise with international legitimacy is designed to lull the Israeli public. No one, not even the president of the United States, has the power to revoke a UN Security Council resolution. The UN is not some entity that has all of a sudden decided to attack Israel. For the past 50 years, all the world body’s member states except for Israel and Micronesia have viewed the settlements as an obstacle to peace, at best. At worst, they regard settling occupied territory as a violation of international law or even a war crime.
