Israel’s occupation

For the first time, the United States allowed a U.N. Resolution (2334) to condemn Israel over its settlement building to pass (“Israeli settlement-building resolution could backfire,” Dec. 25).

Despite intense lobbying by Israel and calls from president-elect Donald Trump to block the text, the first U.N. resolution since 1979 to condemn Israel over its settlement policy was passed by the council with applause breaking out in the chamber.

The year 2017 will mark 50 years of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. Ignoring international law and human rights mandates, Israel continues to confiscate land, transfer its population to occupied territory and attack the very population it is bound by law to protect.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s mantra, calling any questioning of Israel’s actions or policies anti-semitic, shows his uneasiness with the international condemnation of his actions. Fearing that it could strengthen the possibility of prosecution at the International Criminal Court and encourage countries to impose sanctions against Israeli settlers and goods produced in the settlements, his rhetoric rose to new heights, lashing out at all who supported the resolution and recalling Israel's ambassadors.

Instead, Netanyahu should take comfort in the new 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reached between the Obama administration and Israel. The new MOU is the largest single pledge of military assistance in U.S. history totaling $38 billion ($34.8 billion per year).

It is my hope that these tax dollars be withheld until Israel complies with the same international law and human rights principles we expect of all other nations.

Joyce F. Guinn Germantown Please email your letters to jsedit@jrn.com, or mail them to Letters to the editor, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, P.O. Box 371, Milwaukee, Wis. 53201-0371.