Israel halts new settlement for 6 months

It’s not that there are no settlements in the West Bank. However, the recent violence by the Palestinian terrorist on the civilian Jews have prompted the Netanyahu govt to go aggressive.

With US intervention, Israel has shelved implementation of its plans to establish new settlements along the West Bank region of the country, for six months. Thus, the Israel-Palestine issue that could have become worse has been averted for some months. No sooner had Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the new settlement plan, Palestine as well as its partners in the Arab world and Islamic community started working on a UN Security Council resolution.

Though it was sure that the US would have used its veto power to strike down the resolution, it has now avoided any diplomatic tussle that would have occurred in the UN, at least for the time being. The US already has at present so much on its plate - from Ukraine crisis to 'Balloongate' that has rocked their ties with China - that one more would have made its position precarious. Hence, the Biden administration realized that it is better to avert a potential diplomatic crisis over Israeli settlements for now.

However, the US diplomats had to work hard to convince the two parties as each of them have many compulsions over the issue. Whereas Israel decided to settle new colonies in the West Bank and extend Jerusalem that it considers its part, Palestinian government has been opposing any such moves from Israel as a threat and a trick to change demographics of the region. For now, both the parties have got what they desired.

For instance, Israel has though been asked to hold any expansion of the settlements, Palestine is content that for at least six months, they have received an affirmation, a legally binding resolution that there would not be any change in the status quo.

Diplomatic efforts to calm down Palestine

It's not that there are no settlements in the West Bank region of Israel; however, the recent violence from the Palestinian terrorist on the civilian Jews have prompted Benjamin Netanyahu to go aggressive. He made the decision to build new settlement outposts in the region in reply to the aggressive Palestinian attack on Israeli civilians. However, with the help of Arab countries, Palestine was planning to bring the resolution.

However, the time limit is just 6 months, i.e. till August. Given the fact that Israel is committed to expand its colonies to the Best Bank settlement areas, this is just buying some more time and keeping Palestine pleased for the time being.