The facts on settlements

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put the United States on the right side of history by reversing a terrible mistake made by President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to let the UN Security Council adopt a horrendous antiIsrael resolution in December 2016.

The resolution decrees that any Israeli settlement on territory won in the 1967 Six Day War “constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.” That includes letting a single Jew live in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Pompeo restored U.S. policy: “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.”

True. The West Bank is not conquered land, like Germany seizing a chunk of France. It is part of the UN’s Palestine Mandate,

which ended in 1948. Israel is one of the two-UN approved successor states. The other state is a yet-to-be-created Palestinian state.

Still, Pompeo could and should have said more. Namely, that while most settlers by far live in de facto suburbs of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that will almost certainly be part of Israel in a final agreement, a few live in far-flung outposts that are real impediments to peace.

But settlements aren’t the main obstacle to peace. Proof: There are no settlements in Gaza, yet Hamas still foments hate and terror because it reviles Israel and wants to extinguish it.

President Trump, facing impeachment danger, is appealing to pro-Israel voters and aiding his pal Bibi Netanyahu. His motives may be political, but facts are facts.