Trump won’t find a rational player in Israel: Analyst

The administration of US President Donald Trump will not find a “rational player” in the Israeli regime in any effort to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says Mark Glenn, an American author and political analyst.

“Of course what we have to understand about all of this is that when we are dealing with Israel, we are not dealing with a rational player here,” Glenn told Press TV on Friday.

Rather he said the US is dealing with a group of “extremist fundamentalists” who are obsessed with creating “a Jewish state.”

The US has acted as a “prostitute” for Israel during the past 50 years, devoting its economic, military and political power to protect and support the regime, Glenn noted.

“Whether it has been American military support for Israel, economic support for Israel, political support for Israel, there literally has been no act, no matter how depraved and immoral, that the United States has not willingly engaged in, in order to please the demands of her customer, meaning Israel,” he said.

However, there is a limit to how far Washington is willing to go to support Israel because it does not want to threaten its own interests, Glenn said.

On Thursday, the White House issued an unexpected warning to Israel not to expand the construction of settlements beyond their current borders, shifting toward a tougher line with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"While we don't believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a statement.

However, Spicer made clear that the Trump administration "has not taken an official position” on settlement construction, a departure from previous US administrations that considered the settlements illegal.

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One reason the White House is seemingly taking a tougher line with Israel, Glenn said, is Russia’s success in fighting US and Israeli-backed militants in Syria, which is threatening Washington’s standing in the Middle East, Glenn noted.

“The Russians are enjoying an extreme infusion of goodwill on the part of people, not just in the Middle East, but the entire world; this threatens to undo the standing that the United Sates has maintained now in the Middle East for over half a century,” he said.

Every US president since Jimmy Carter has taken the position that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories are "illegitimate" under international law. 

Before taking office, Trump slammed the administration of former President Barack Obama for not vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements.

The presence and continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine have created a major obstacle for the efforts to resolve the conflict. Palestinians want the West Bank as part of their future independent state, with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

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