US allies' embrace of Palestinian statehood tests Trump's Israel policy

Growing international frustration with Washington over the war in Gaza spilled into the open at the UN General Assembly this week, with US allies recognising a Palestinian state in a major test for President Donald Trump's Middle East policy. After promising at the start of his second term to quickly end the war between Israel and Hamas, Trump now looks increasingly like a bystander as Israeli forces escalate their onslaught in the Palestinian enclave and he remains reluctant to rein in Washington's closest regional ally. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blindsided Trump with a strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar earlier this month that all but doomed the Trump administration's latest effort to secure a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal....