A few weeks ago, President Trump made a bombastic declaration that he would not allow Israel to annex the “West Bank“. He later explained that his imperial diktat was based on a promise he’d allegedly made to several unnamed Arab leaders, whose friendship he apparently valued more than his adherence to American law.
When I pointed this fact out to several Foreign Ministry officials, the look of incomprehension on the faces of these bureaucrats told me all I needed to know about their total ignorance of what I was talking about.
Few people are aware of the fact that the San Remo Agreement granted our people sovereign rights over Judaea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
Fewer people, unfortunately, are aware of the fact that this agreement was accepted by the League of Nations as the law that governed Britain’s handling of its Palestine Mandate.
Not surprisingly, hardly anyone realizes that this law was subsequently accepted by the United Nations as binding international law.
What absolutely astounds me, though, is that absolutely no one within the Israeli diplomatic corps seems to be aware of the fact that the 1924 Anglo American Treaty legally bound the American government to honor San Remo’s recognition of Jewish ownership of both the Territories and Jerusalem. Since Washington had not joined the League of Nations, Great Britain decided to sign a separate treaty with the U.S. committing the latter to honoring San Remo’s recognition of Jewish sovereignty over the Territories. The eventual treaty was later confirmed by the U.S. Senate and signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge.
In other words, President Trump actually broke American law when he arbitrarily threatened to punish us if we dared to annex the "West Bank". I guess the fact that we wouldn’t be annexing land that legally belonged to us in the first place went straight over the President’s head. Of course, if President Trump wants to void the 1924 Treaty, all he has to do is to get two thirds of the Senate to abrogate it. And that, simply put, isn’t going to happen. So the 1924 Anglo American Treaty stands as U.S. law - and Trump, in his ignorance, broke it.
There’s an old expression that ignorance of the law is no excuse for having committed a crime. I think that best describes President Trump’s violation of the Anglo American Treaty of 1924. Clearly, he had absolutely no right to promise his Arab friends something that he had no legal right to offer. On the other hand, Bibi’s “crime” is that he hasn’t summoned the courage to act on this Treaty by officially announcing the application of Israeli sovereignty over Judaea and Samaria as per our right under the 1924 Anglo American Treaty.
Luckily, there is still time, though, for him to do so. He just has to start acting like the leader of an independent country and not a servile doormat for President Trump.