Israel Continues Violating International Law

There was a time when Isral was in the right. They had a new country and the right to exist and prosper, but there were other countries trying to deny them that right. But times change, and now it is Israel that is violating international law, while its neighbors want to see a peaceful two-state solution.

Most of the world, including the United States and the European Union, believe the solution to peace in the Mid-East is a negotiated settlement resulting in Gaza and the West Bank becoming an independent Palestinian state. The main opponent to this plan is Israel. That's because they steal more land in the West Bank every day by building permanent settlements there.

They don't seem to care that their actions are in violation of international law. They believe they'll be able to claim the settlements as Israeli land in future negotiations, and the longer they delay those negotiations, the more Palestinian land they'll be able to steal.

President Obama has asked Israel to completely freeze all building in the West Bank, as have most of the countries of the European Union. But Prime Minister Netanyahu has snubbed his best allies. He said on Monday that they will not only continue construction on the 2500 units already started, but they have approved construction of another 450 units.

Netanyahu said they will not stop constructing settlements in the West Bank, but they might consider "scaling down construction". No one is sure exactly what that means. Probably, it just means they will approve the new construction in smaller lots, but still continue the building (regardless of the size of new approvals).

This is unacceptable. This is not Israeli land they are building on. It is nothing more than an attempt to steal Palestinian land. It is also their way to delay negotiations while they continue to steal land. They know no negotiations will happen as long as they continue construction.

It is also obvious that the Israelis think they can ignore the United States and the European Union, and the U.S. and E.U. will do nothing about it. It is time to back up our requests with action. The U.S. should immeediately suspend all foreign aid to Israel until the building of settlements has completely stopped and they have returned to the negotiating table. If they want to violate international law, steal land and ignore our requests, they should have to do it without any of our money.

They have a right to exist, but they don't have a right to steal.