, Columnist
Trump Gives Netanyahu a Free Hand in the West Bank
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's announcement effectively reverses the decades old U.S. policy of supporting a two-state solution.
Pompeo’s gift to Bibi.
Photographer: Jim Young/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
In 12 simple words, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has dramatically changed the shape of the U.S. policy toward the West Bank. “The Trump administration is reversing the Obama administration’s approach towards Israeli settlements.”
Some Israeli right-wingers are cheering this approach as big step toward the annexation of the West Bank, where Israel has rejected UN rulings that it is an occupier. It is not quite that, but it marks an historic change in U.S. policy that has favored a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.