President Donald Trump on Thursday tweeted it’s “time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights.”

The annual AIPAC conference begins on Sunday and The Hill reports it “boasts headliners from both parties, including Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also routinely come to the event, and will do so again this year.”

Ali Abunimah tweeted: “How do the delusional @Maddow #Russiagate peddlers explain that ‘Putin puppet’ @realDonaldTrump still refuses to recognize Russian annexation of Crimea, but just did Netanyahu’s bidding and recognized illegal Israeli annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights?”

Abunimah is among the speakers at the “Israel Lobby & American Policy Conference,” now taking place on Friday at the National Press Club. See information, including livestream — also on C-SPAN2. Other speakers include Walter Hixson, author of Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict and organizer Grant Smith, author of Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby moves America.

JOHN QUIGLEY, quigley.2 at osu.edu
Quigley is professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State University. Regarding Trump’s statement on the Golan Heights, which was seized by Israel in 1967, he cites the Stimson Doctrine, which which forbids recognition of any legal consequences as a result of the use of force. See information on State Department website about the Stimson Doctrine.

Quigley’s books include The Statehood of Palestine: International Law in the Middle East Conflict (Cambridge University Press) and The Ruses for War: American Interventionism Since World War II. He also wrote “Finding a Way Forward for Crimea,” for the Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law.