Noah Pollak, the executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel and a Washington Free Beacon contributor, discussed Israeli settlements in the West Bank and criticized the Obama administration's treatment of the Jewish state during an appearance Tuesday on Fox Business.
Charles Payne, who was guest hosting Neil Cavuto's show "Coast to Coast," introduced the segment by noting that the United Nations Security Council has described Israeli settlements in the West Bank as violations of international law.
"The Security Council was wrong," Pollak responded. "The West Bank is disputed territory; it is not occupied territory."
Pollak said that before the Obama administration, these settlements were not viewed as controversial, but the administration used this issue to create discord with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"Do you believe that under President Donald Trump there is a greater chance of resolving this issue than it was with Barack Obama?" Payne asked.
"I think the Trump administration is going to try its own approach. I'm not sure if there is a greater chance of that. I think the Palestinians have to be tested," Pollak responded. He then went on to criticize the Obama administration for looking to attack Netanyahu instead of working towards a peace agreement.
"What I think Obama wanted to do was turn the Democratic Party in a more anti-Israel direction, and I think in some regards if you look in the polling he succeeded in that," Pollack said.
Recent polling on the views of Democratic voters regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict suggests that Pollak may be correct. A Pew Research poll from May 2016 showed that more liberal Democrats support the Palestinians (40 percent) over Israel (33 percent), which is higher than any point since 2001.