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Source: http://www.jpost.com/International/Israel-has-every-right-to-refuse-a-1967-withdrawal-470581
U.S. Promised Not to Change UN Resolution 242
(Jerusalem Post) Tovah Lazaroff - U.S. support for a UN Security Council resolution to replace 242 would conflict with commitments given to Israel by Washington going back to 1973, former Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold told the Jerusalem Post on Thursday. Resolution 242 is the backbone on which the entire Israeli-Palestinian peace process is structured. "After the '73 war the United States gave Israel commitments that it would not allow for a change in UNSC Resolution 242," he said, adding that those commitments were "in writing." The Palestinians have long pushed for a revision of 242 to explicitly state that Israel must return to the pre-1967 lines. Israel has maintained that a UNSC resolution replacing 242 that imposes the terms of a peace deal discourages the Palestinians from pursuing a negotiated agreement. "What is clear, given the chaos in the region that exists today, is that Israel has every right to resist calls to withdraw to the 1967 lines," Gold said. He added that a UNSC resolution against West Bank settlement activity "would violate a core commitment in the Oslo agreements that all permanent status issues must be negotiated," and that under the 1993 Oslo Accords Israel was not prohibited from engaging in settlement activity.