Settling the International Hypocrisy on Settlements – By Paul Miller (American Spectator) / Feb 13 2020
A double standard always at Israel’s expense.
While President Donald Trump’s recently released Mideast peace plan is likely to gain little traction — both with Israel and the U.S. facing partisan gridlock and elections and the Palestinians swiftly rejecting the measure — it does provide a fresh alternative perspective on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
More subtly, the so-called “deal of the century” flips on its head long-held assumptions about the conflict while shedding light on the double standards that Israel faces internationally.
One of the primary points of the Trump peace plan is its seal of approval for Israeli settlements, an aspect that has drawn vocal opposition from Palestinians, Arab leaders, Russia, the European Union, Democratic lawmakers, and 2020 presidential candidates. Yet the widespread framing of Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians belies the global response to other territorial conflicts.
A particularly telling test case is the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Amid the waning days of the Soviet Union, contention over Nagorno-Karabakh devolved into warfare that saw close to 30,000 people killed and the expulsion of more than 700,000 Azerbaijanis from the territory. Today, Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized by four UN resolutions as well as U.S. State Department policy as part of Azerbaijan, but it is occupied and settled by Armenia.
While Armenia’s actions in Nagorno-Karabakh should seemingly lead to international outrage and a call for an end to this occupation, the overriding reaction has been silence. Unlike their pervasive rebuke of Israeli settlements, human rights groups and various countries actively support Armenia’s settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh. A recent report published by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies found that this selective criticism by governments and NGOs underscores “deeper problems in the international system.”
Continue to article: https://spectator.org/settling-the-international-hypocrisy-on-settlements/
