WALL STREET JOURNAL
Pompeo Busts the ‘Occupation’ Myth
by Eugene Kontorovich
Novenber 19, 2019

Is­raeli set­tle­ments in the West Bank do not vi­o­late in­ternational law. That is now Amer­i­ca’s of­fi­cial view, an­nounced Mon­day by Sec­re­tary of State Mike Pom­peo. The his­toric de­ci­sion re­pu­di­ates the con­clu­sions of a 1978 State De­part­ment mem­o­ran­dum. For decades, Israel’s detractors have appealed to consensus, asserting that settlements are illegal because the entire international community agrees they are illegal. As with Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, the Trump administration has refused to be cowed by a hollow consensus. By dissenting, the U.S. has destroyed both the consensus and the frail arguments that relied on it. READ MORE SUBSCRIPTION CONTENT