The US is reversing course on a major policy position on Israel.
In a surprise announcement on Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the US is softening its position on the Israelis settlement in the so-called West Bank – the region known in the Bible as Judea and Samaria.
Speaking from the State Department in Washington, Pompeo repudiated a 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements in the so-called occupied territories are “inconsistent with international law.”