Trump says he is just being realistic, recognizing the reality on the ground. Trump is correct – he’s given Israel nothing it didn’t already have, except U.S official recognition and approval of that reality.

What the critics don’t like is that Trump has exposed their hypocritical pretense that there is something to be gained by Palestinians “negotiating” with Israel for something like a “two state” solution — a fig leaf, chimera and fakery that never got off the ground.

Trump has given the green light to Israel’s annexation of the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the critics say. But these have always been part of Israel. The settlers vote in Israeli elections. They are protected by the Israeli armed forces. They are connected by roads to “green line” Israel that only Israelis may use, separating Palestinians into chopped up portions of the West Bank.

The critics also say Trump has allowed Israel to annex the land in the West Bank bordering Jordan. But the Israeli army already had taken over that land. In fact, the borders that the Israeli armed forces defend are not only this border with Jordan, but the border with Egypt (with the exception of the small border with Gaza, which Egypt patrols for Israel), Syria and Lebanon. The Mediterranean border with Gaze is strictly controlled by the Israeli Navy, which won’t even allow humanitarian aid in.

These are the real borders of Israel at present, not the “green line”, which is the pre-1967 “internationally recognized border”. Israel never accepted the “green line” as its border. When Israel was established in 1947 by the United Nations, it was given the majority of Palestine. At the time, the Zionists openly stated that they accepted this land, but not as their final border, only a stepping stone to capturing all the land of biblical Israel, “Eratz Yisrael”.

Trump has recognized the reality on the ground. But how did that present reality come into existence?

What Trump has done is to put in place the finishing touches that Western imperialism for a century, and for the last half century mainly the U.S., has constructed in backing Zionism’s project.

The reality that is present Israel consists of not only the borders the Israeli armed forces controls and defends, but the entire land between those borders. Within those borders, there is a single army, air force and navy. There is one foreign policy, that of the Israeli government. There is one currency, the Israeli shekel. There is one official language, Hebrew. In every aspect, there is one state in this territory, and its name is Israel.

Within this single state, there are some 4.7 million stateless Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. They have no say in the policies of their rulers. That makes Israel an apartheid state. There are in addition Palestinians within the green line who are citizens of Israel, but second-class citizens.

An addition to Israel’s Basic Code, which is like a constitution, was adopted by the Israeli parliament (Knesset) in 2018, which made it crystal clear that no Palestinian state would ever be allowed. It refers to the state as “Eratz Yisrael”, and says it is the state of all the Jews, and refers to Jews living outside as exiles who are urged to be “gathered” into Israel.

What its final borders will be is somewhat vague, but the present land Israel rules will be included within them. Biblical Israel includes Sinai, for example, so more land may be included.

It says that “The actualization of the right to self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people,” so Palestinians have no right
to a state of their own.

It says that Hebrew is the language of the state, with Arabic given special status, and that “the regulation of the Arab language in state institutions … will be regulated by [Israeli] law.”

Both Democratic and Republican politicians accept that this is part of Israel’s Basic Law.

This reality is the culmination of Western imperialist support to the Zionist aims in Palestine at the expense of the indigenous population. Following the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the League of Nations assigned Palestine to Britain. In 1917, the British government promised to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

Following World War II, the United Nations, over the objections of all the Arab countries, established Israel in the majority of the Palestinian territory. This led to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and the exodus of a large number of Palestinians creating the Palestinian diaspora. Palestinians have always demanded that these Palestinians and their descendants be allowed to return to their homeland.

Israel has always rejected any Palestinian right of return. Trump has now put his stamp of approval on the Israeli position.

In the 1967 war, Israel captured the remaining 22 percent of Palestine, including the West Bank and the Gaza strip, where it has ruled over 4.7 million stateless Palestinians for 53 years since. It also captured the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.

Gaza is not free of Israeli control. Israel every so often “mows the lawn” in horrific military action against Gaza, causing massive destruction, and has complete control of how much food, water, electricity and construction material to rebuild it allows the people of Gaza to have, to the point where the strip is nearly unlivable.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria launched an invasion of Sinai and the Golan Heights retake their territories that Israel had captured in 1967. Israel hoped for a quick victory, since the U.S. had built up its military to the most powerful in the region. Israel planned to drive even further into Egypt and Syria, under the false pretext that it was under attack.

The U.S. and Israel were stunned when the Egyptian army drove deep into Sinai. The U.S. responded with a massive airlift of heavy arms to Israel, from bases in the U.S. as well as in Europe. The planes used to transfer the armaments included Israeli 747s. This turned the tide, and the Israeli army was able to surround Egypt’s Third Army in Sinai, and threatened to annihilate it.

The Soviet Union, an ally of Egypt, threated to intervene of save the Egyptian army. This led to a confrontation between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., and a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, where Kissinger threatened nuclear war against the Soviet Union. A cease fire was arranged that returned the situation to the pre-war one, and the Third Army was allowed to return to Egypt.

The U.S. supported Israel in the 1948, and 1967 wars as well as the 1973 one. In addition to spending tens of billions to build up Israel’s military, Washington also helped Israel develop a nuclear arsenal that threatens the region, with an estimated 100-200 warheads.

“During the last several decades, as Israel slowly took over the West Bank, putting more than 600,000 settlers in occupied territory,” writes Nathan Thrall, director of the Arab-Israeli Project of the International Crisis Group, in an OP-ED in the New York Times, “the United States provided Israel with diplomatic backing and billions of dollars in annual aid.”

He says, “The Trump plan merely puts the finishing touches on a house that American lawmakers, Republican and Democrats alike, spent dozens of years to build.”

Some of the Democrats running for president have spoken against the annexations, but propose nothing to stop them, much less reverse the de facto annexations.

“Israel’s defenders like to say that Israel is being singled out, and they are, right,“ Thrall says. “Israel is the only state perpetuating a permanent military occupation, with discriminatory laws for separate groups living in the same territory, that self-identified liberals around the world go out of their way to justify, defend and even fund. In the absence of advocating policies with actual teeth, the Democratic critics of the Trump plan are not much better than the president. They are, not in words but in deeds, supporters of annexation and subjugation, too.”

Barry Sheppard