In a move that will only further buttress the Trump administration’s well-deserved claim to being the most pro-Israel American presidency since the 1948 founding of the Jewish state, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced today that it shall henceforth be the policy of the United States that Israeli “settlements” — Jews living in the biblical Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria — do not, by their very existence, violate international law.
“After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this [a]dministration agrees with President Reagan [that] [t]he establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law,” Pompeo said. Former top Trump administration Middle East peace negotiator Jason Greenblatt further broke down the administration’s move on Israeli television: “The right [legal] result … is that Israeli settlements are not per se illegal,” he explained.
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