The Real Target of Trump's Executive Order

The executive order Donald Trump signed yesterday, purportedly intended to combat antisemitism, can only be understood in the context of a few key facts. The first is that the Trump administration is actively pursuing a post-two-state solution in Israel/Palestine, laying the groundwork for Israel’s eventual annexation of all or parts of the occupied West Bank. The second is that, as a result of more than half a century of military rule over the Palestinian territories, Israel continues to face challenges to its legitimacy, especially in the form of the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on college campuses in the United States and around the world. The third is that, despite Trump’s numerous antisemitic comments and his administration’s general coziness with white nationalists, right-wing supporters of Israel have found in him a useful vessel for realizing their territorial-maximalist aims.