US State Dep't Declines to Term "Settlements" As "Illegal"

Read Victoria Nuland's reply - she's the Spokesperson at the State Department Daily Press Briefings - to the question:

December 21, 2011

TRANSCRIPT:
12:52 p.m. EST

...QUESTION: Yes, Toria. Yesterday, the four members of the European Union on the Security Council issued a statement calling occupied territories and settlements in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem as illegal under international law. Do you concur?

MS. NULAND: Said, as you know, we declined to join that statement for all of the usual reasons. It doesn’t change the fact that our longstanding policy remains that we don’t recognize the legitimacy of the continued Israeli settlements, but we don’t think statements in the UNSC are the way to pursue the goal of getting these parties back to the table. The best way to deal with this issue of land, settlement, et cetera, is for these parties to talk
to each other, come up with borders, and then have two states living side by side in agreed borders.

Take note:

a) she doesn't employ "illegal";

b) she refers in the context to "continued", not previous/existing;

c) size of land Israel is to retain is still an open question for the agenda.

Jewish residency communities in Judea and Samaria are not "illegal" but very much in line with the diplomatic, legal and historical development of the Jewish reconstitution of its National Home in what was termed Palestine.

Only negotiations and a final peace treaty can define what the borders will be.

Thank you, Ms. Nuland.

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