Source: USAToday
Monday’s surprise announcement by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the United States views Israeli settlements as not “inconsistent with international law” should have come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Trump administration’s pro-Netanyahu and anti-Palestinian policies since coming into office.
The move combined all of the worst elements of Trumpian foreign policy — an obsession with his predecessor; the centrality of domestic politics in his foreign policy; and the untethering of the recent announcement from any coherent strategy, including the furtherance of the administration’s own peace plan.
Indeed, Monday’s upending of decades of U.S. policy was yet another example of the Trump administration coming up with a solution to a problem America didn’t have and creating new problems in the process...