Trump’s special services to Netanyahu: From recognizing al-Quds as Israel’s capital to backing settlements

U.S. President Donald Trump has offered more special services to the Zionist regime and Benjamin Netanyahu in particular

Washington has always been Israel’s main ally, but the U.S. services offered to Tel Aviv during Trump’s presidency are unprecedented.

In contravention of international law and UN resolutions, Trump has provided Netanyahu with all the services for which former Israeli prime ministers were eager to receive.

For the Zionist regime, there was no time more pleasant than 13-year premiership of Netanyahu which coincided with Trump’s presidency. In other words, former U.S. presidents have not served the Israeli government like Trump.

Netanyahu, who has been facing corruption trial, has been able to remain in power thanks to Trump’s assistance. Despite his failure to form a cabinet in the second parliamentary elections in a year, the Israeli prime minister is hopeful to win the Knesset elections to form a government as the regime seems set for another election.

By shifting the forty-year U.S. stance on Israel’s settlements in the occupied territories, Trump dealt his last blow to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process despite talking about the peace project propagated as “deal of the century”.

From 1979, when former U.S. Democratic President Jimmy Carter described the settlements in the West Bank as illegal, to the recent days that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a shift in U.S. position, all U.S. presidents opposed the settlement in different ways. But Trump changed the forty-year policy. In 2016 and last days of Barack Obama’s presidency, the UN passed a resolution against Israel, which condemned the settlements in the West Bank.

The settlement policy was so inconsistent with international law and against peace with the Palestinians that even the United States, the chief supporter of the Zionist regime, refused to veto the UN Security Council resolution as it had been doing all through decades.

Another service by Trump was to recognize the Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights. The action also was in line with reinforcing Netanyahu’s position in the election, a move which was objected by his rivals, who viewed it as an interference in Israeli affairs.   

The Golan Heights belong to Syria. Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967 and formally annexed it to the occupied territories in 1981. The annexation has been opposed by the international community. The U.S. is the first country that has recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Syrian territory.

A month later, Netanyahu, in a heavily propagandistic way and in line with his approach of deceiving Trump, announced that a city will be built after the name of Trump in the Golan Heights.

Although the plan was passed in the Knesset, no budget was approved for its implementation. It did not go beyond a propaganda. That is why former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a speech at Harvard University, called Netanyahu “an extraordinarily skilled” politician and said that Trump has been played by Israel’s prime minister.

Trump’s another service to Netanyahu and blow to Palestine was to recognize al-Quds as the Zionist regime’s capital and to move the U.S. embassy to the city. The action was considered as a huge success for Netanyahu, especially at a time that he was under political and judicial pressure.

All Palestinian groups, such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) opposed Trump’s action, and the relations between the U.S. and the Palestinian National Authority nosedived. Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called al-Quds the eternal capital of Palestine.

Now, one should wait and see whether Netanyahu, who has failed to form a cabinet in the last two elections, will be able to play an effective role in the political structure of the Zionist regime or should he get ready for his trial.