Israel Policy Forum is dismayed at the Trump administration’s decision to formally reverse the 1979 State Department opinion that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are inconsistent with international law. While the ultimate resolution of the West Bank should only be determined in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, granting an American green light to unfettered settlement construction throughout the West Bank will only make an ultimate resolution of the West Bank’s status far more difficult. It places a two-state future even farther out of reach, will isolate not only Israel from the international community but the U.S. as well, and will potentially provide Israel with the dangerous illusion that it has support beyond the narrow confines of this White House to unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank. We urge the Trump administration to resist taking any further steps that make a permanent status agreement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more difficult to achieve, and we hope that the Israeli government does not take any action that destroys the possibility of a two-state outcome.
