Donald Trump has done it again. Last week, in defiance of international law and overturning four decades of US policy, the president green-lighted Israel’s eventual annexation of most of the occupied Palestinian territories, by legitimising illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
This follows his decisions last year to recognise Jerusalem — including Israeli-occupied Arab East Jerusalem — as the capital of Israel, and to move the US embassy there; and to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in the 1967 Six day war.
Last month Mr Trump legitimised another land-grab by suddenly withdrawing US troops from north-east Syria and, in effect, licensing Turkey to seize its third enclave in that part of the country.