Is Trump Changing US Policy in the Middle East? | Inside Story

In his latest controversial move, US President Donald Trump has recognized Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, ending decades of US policy towards the region. It's a boost for embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is seeking re-election in two weeks; but the move has been condemned by world leaders.

Israel captured the territory in 1967 and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally. So is Trump helping or hindering peace in the Middle East?

Presenter: Nick Clark | Guests: Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy at the American University of Beirut; Guillaume Charron, director of the advisory firm Independent Diplomat; Eugene Kontorovich, international law professor at the Kohelet Policy Forum who advised both the Israeli and American governments on the Occupied Golan Heights

Benjamin Netanyahu Win Forces Obama to Re-evaluate Middle East Peace Strategy

Prime Minister's Benjamin Netanyahu's decisive election win triggered a sharp reaction Wednesday from the Obama White House, which skipped the customary congratulations to warn that the Israeli leader's eleventh-hour campaign promise to block the creation of a Palestinian state has forced the administration to re-evaluate its overall strategy toward the Middle East peace process. "This administration…

Israel Rebuffs Hillary Clinton's Call for Halt in West Bank Settlements
TIMES ONLINE: Israel’s new right-wing government was set for its first stand-off with the Obama Administration today, after it openly rebuffed a call from Washington to a total freeze on all Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, called last night for Israel halt all construction of settlements, considered illegal by the international community as they are civilian communities built on war-conquered land.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister, offered last week in Washington to dismantle new settlement outposts in return for being allowed to continue “natural growth” on the established West Bank communities.

But Mrs Clinton made a surprisingly curt rebuttal to the proposal, insisting that Mr Obama – who travels to Cairo next week to try and heal strained US ties with the Muslim world – wanted a blanket ban on settlement growth.

He wants to see a stop to settlements — not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions,” she said. “We think it is in the best interests (of the peace process) that settlement expansion cease. That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly. ... And we intend to press that point.” >>> James Hider in Jerusalem | Thursday, May 28, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Telegraph View

The White House must not show ambiguity in its relations with Israel.

President Barack Obama was, it seems, nonplussed by his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month. He was said to have been taken aback by the Israeli prime minister's intransigent tone over West Bank settlements and the two-state solution.

If these reports are accurate, there should be no surprise in the White House this morning at Israel's brusque response to Hillary Clinton's demand for a complete halt on all settlement activity.

The US Secretary of State had said there could be no exceptions from President Obama's call for a settlement freeze. "Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions. We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease", Mrs Clinton said. President Barack Obama Must Start to Act the Part >>> | Thursday, May 28, 2009