Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Trump is right about West Bank settlements – but it won’t help Israel

In the dying days of Bush’s America, when the culture war was a light skirmish over gays getting hitched in Massachusetts, ABC aired a primetime drama called Brothers and Sisters. Sally Field was the liberal matriarch of a glossy family divided by politics but united by the struggles of being rich, white and trapped in a soapy remake of the West Wing. It was simpering. It was derivative. It was camp-as-all-get-out. I never missed a single episode.

In one episode, Calista Flockhart, who played an Ann Coulterish talking-head, returns home from flaming a Democrat on TV and is greeted by her lefty Uncle Saul: ‘Great show last night. As usual, you were right about Israel and wrong about everything else.’ That’s how I feel about the Trump administration: it’s horrific on everything that doesn’t involve the words ‘the only true democracy in the Middle East’.

Trump has come through for Israel yet again – something, in the interests of full disclosure, I repeatedly warned he wouldn’t.

Get Britain's best politics newsletters

Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in