Palestinians’ formative years are scarred by what they witness and experience living under the Israeli military occupation of their lands that has been in place 50 years: Israeli settler violence against them in their homes, destroying their property, theft of their land and burning of their crops… even some instances in which Israeli extremists have burned Palestinians in their homes while they were sleeping.
With a single exception, all the countries were targeted for attack in 2001, with similar plans in 1996, 1991, 1982, and the 1950s. The fact is that Trump’s action continues policies influenced by people working on behalf of a foreign country, whose goal has been to destabilize and reshape an entire region. The result has been devastating wars, massive refugee movement that is uprooting entire peoples and transforming parts of Europe, desperate terrorism, and now the horror that is ISIS. If this decades-long effort is not halted, it will increasingly devastate the region, our country, and the world…
The Trump administration is shaping its policy toward Israel and a potential peace settlement with the Palestinians in ways that may seem surprising for a president who had appeared to offer the government in Jerusalem a blank check on the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and other issues.”
Trump’s evolving settlement policy appears more lenient toward Israel than the Obama administration’s, but not as lenient as sought by many of Israel’s strongest backers. There may be more continuity with past policy on Israel and on Iran than many foreign policy analysts had expected.