No Longer Playing the Game

Many of his opponents are fond of trying to make everyone believe that Donald Trump is a raging anti-semite. Well, the raging anti-semite recently drove yet another nail deep into the coffin of that allegation.

A couple of weeks ago President Trump upended forty years of American policy vis a vis Israel by recognizing Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

People can debate the wisdom of this move, but coming on the heels of Trump's recognition two years ago of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and his more recent recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights last March, added to the fact that his daughter Ivanka married a Jewish man, Jared Kushner, one might think those who have accused him of anti-semitic bigotry would be a bit chagrined by all the counter evidence.

From the first link above:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will no longer view Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as "inconsistent with international law." This effectively means the US will no longer adhere to a 1978 State Department legal opinion issued under the administration of former President Jimmy Carter, which determined the settlements violated international law.

"Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace," Pompeo said on Monday. "The hard truth is that there will never be a judicial resolution to the conflict, and arguments about who is right and who is wrong as a matter of international law will not bring peace."

Pompeo is surely right about this. No matter how many concessions Israel makes to the Palestinians, no matter how far backwards the United States bends to get the Palestinians to simply admit Israel's right to exist, nothing ever comes of it except more Palestinian hostility toward Israel.

If the Palestinians aren't interested in peace with Israel then the United States may as well stop trying to be a neutral broker and start showing the Palestinians that their obduracy is not in their best interests and that we're no longer going to play their game.

Even so, whether recognizing the legality of the settlements is good or bad policy, calling Trump and anti-semitic bigot is surely one of the most ridiculous libels his opponents have tried to tarnish him with.