What's Important is that Israel Will Outlast Obama

From yesterday's State Deptartment press conference with Jen Psaki:-

QUESTION: All right. On the other side of the coin, just talking about the – not the other side of this particular coin, but the Israeli coin, have you – are you aware of the latest comments that Israeli Defense Minister Ya’alon made?

MS. PSAKI: I have seen those.

QUESTION: Do you have any – about settlements and U.S. criticism of them. Do you view them as a – as evidence that your complaints or your denunciations of settlement activity has – have – in fact, have had an impact?

MS. PSAKI: Well, we all saw the comments. I wouldn’t go that far. I think one thing I would note, since you gave me the opportunity, is that our opposition – this Administration’s opposition to settlements is fully consistent with the policies of administrations for decades, including of both parties. So the notion that that would change is not borne out by history.

QUESTION: The notion that – you mean once the Obama Administration --

MS. PSAKI: The policy.

QUESTION: He was quoted as saying the Obama Administration is not going to last forever, which is – seems to be a statement of fact rather than --

MS. PSAKI: That is correct. It will be done in two years.

QUESTION: But you’re predicting that whatever – whoever the next president is, his or her administration is not going to change the U.S. position on settlement --

MS. PSAKI: Well, given our policy has been consistently the case for decades, through --

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. PSAKI: -- Republican and Democratic administrations --

QUESTION: So in other words, you would tell Defense Minister Ya’alon you’re stuck with U.S. opposition to settlements even beyond the Obama Administration? Is that correct?

MS. PSAKI: I would say our position, our policy has been consistent for quite some time.

QUESTION: But you usually, though, don’t pull out the crystal ball and predict the future.

MS. PSAKI: Fair enough, Matt.

QUESTION: This is an issue, though, that you think that is bipartisan enough that it will survive --

MS. PSAKI: It has been for some time now, yes.

QUESTION: -- post – okay.

And let's recall another administration:

The Reagan Administration

February 02, 1981

"… As to the West Bank, I believe the settlements there—I disagreed when, the previous Administration refereed to them as illegal, they’re not illegal.  Not under the U.N. resolution that leaves the West Bank open to all people—Arab and Israeli alike, Christian alike.

I do think perhaps now with this rush to do it and this moving in there the way they are is ill-advised because if we’re going to continue with the spirit of Camp David to try and arrive at a peace, maybe this, at this time, is unnecessarily provocative."

President Ronald Reagan’s statements in an interview with the New York Times, February 02, 1981

Boudreault, Jody, Naughton, Emma, Salaam, Yasser, eds. U.S. Official Statements: Israeli Settlements, the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993.

American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1981 Document #295, Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1984 pp. 681-2

September 1982

". . . the question isn't whether they [settlements] are legal or illegal; the question is are they constructive in the effort to arrange a situation that may, in the end, be a peaceful one and be one in which the people of the region can live in a manner that they prefer.  [President Reagan's] answer to that is no, expansion of those settlements is not a constructive move."

Secretary of State George Shultz, news conference following President Reagan’s statement on the PLO departure plan, September 05, 1982

Boudreault, Jody, Naughton, Emma, Salaam, Yasser, eds. U.S. Official Statements: Israeli Settlements, the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993.

Department of State Bulletin v. 82, no. 2066 September 1982 p. 10


September 10, 1982

“The status of Israeli settlements must be determined in the course of the final status negotiations.  We will not support their continuation as extraterritorial outposts, but neither will we support efforts to deny Jews the opportunity to live in the West Bank and Gaza under the duly constituted governmental authority there, as Arabs live in Israel...”

Statement by Secretary of State George P. Shultz to the Foreign Affairs Committee (House of Representatives), September 10, 1982

Boudreault, Jody, Naughton, Emma, Salaam, Yasser, eds. U.S. Official Statements: Israeli Settlements, the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993.

Department of State Bulletin v.82, no.2067 October 1982 p. 6


March 18, 1983

“Q. You know there are a lot of Middle Eastern experts, or so called, who believe that unless you put certain pressures on Israel, there will be no moratorium on the building of settlements in the West Bank.  How do you feel about that?

A. Well, the West Bank—there certainly is no illegality to the building—that bases on the Camp David agreement and the period of discussion that was supposed to then take place, with no one having a claim for or against doing such things…”

President Reagan, interview with Brandon of the London Sunday Times March 18, 1983

Boudreault, Jody, Naughton, Emma, Salaam, Yasser, eds. U.S. Official Statements: Israeli Settlements, the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993.

Presidential Papers: Ronald Reagan, 1983, Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1984 p. 418


October 27, 1983

“… We don not, for example, agree on the settlement policy of Israel.  Our objection is not legal but practical….”

Deputy Secretary of State Dam, before the American Jewish Committee, Philadelphia, PA October 27, 1983

Boudreault, Jody, Naughton, Emma, Salaam, Yasser, eds. U.S. Official Statements: Israeli Settlements, the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993.

Department of State Bulletin v. 83, no.2081 December 1983 p. 49 


February 22, 1984


“… And I had never referred to them as illegal, as some did.  But I did say that I thought they were not helpful, because obviously the peace process… is going to have to involve territorial changes in return for secure, peaceful borders….”

Boudreault, Jody, Naughton, Emma, Salaam, Yasser, eds. U.S. Official Statements: Israeli Settlements, the Fourth Geneva Convention.  Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1993.

American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1984 Document #203 Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1986 p. 496

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