CBN – The US is reversing course on a major policy position on Israel. In a surprise announcement on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US is softening its position on the Israelis settlement in the so-called West Bank – the region known in the Bible as Judea and Samaria.
Speaking from the State Department in Washington, Pompeo repudiated a 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements in the so-called occupied territories are “inconsistent with international law.” The Trump administration views the opinion, the basis for long-standing US opposition to expanding the settlements, as a distraction and believes any legal questions about the issue should be addressed by Israeli courts, Pompeo said.
“Calling the establishment of civilian settlements inconsistent with international law has not advanced the cause of peace,” Pompeo said. “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 said the US would not take a position on the legality of specific settlements, that the new policy would not extend beyond the West Bank and that it would not create a precedent for other territorial disputes, he said. READ MORE
