County Executive Bruce Blakeman is not the first Nassau elected official to comment on American foreign policy – especially related to Israel.

Town and county officials have often done so. The most recent case was when representatives of both parties reacted swiftly in opposition to Ben & Jerry’s in July 2021 after the company’s founders announced that they would no longer sell their ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem as of 2023.

The founders were quick to point out that the company’s policy applied only to the territories Israel had occupied since 1967. Not to Israel itself.

But town and county officials said this still violated prohibitions from doing business with any company boycotting Israel in what is known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS movement.

And this, the Nassau officials said, applied to any product sold by Unilever Corp., the company that owns Ben & Jerry’s. This covers 400 brands, including Dove soap, Lipton tea, Breyers ice cream, Klondike Bars and Hellman’s mayonnaise.

But Blakeman took expressions of support for Israel several transparently political steps beyond opposition to the BDS movement last week when he announced that Nassau County would sign an economic and cultural agreement with Judea and Samaria.

Judea and Samaria, whose names go back to Biblical times, is now an Israeli-designated administrative territory that encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem. Judea refers to all the regions south of Jerusalem. Samaria refers to the area north of Jerusalem.

“This agreement will establish a long-term relationship of cooperation and friendship based on the principle of equality in sovereignty with Judea and Samaria,” Blakeman said in a press release.

It is not exactly clear what Blakeman means by “equality in sovereignty” in the occupied territories or how exactly two countries could be sovereign over the same land.

But it strongly suggests an end to a two-state solution that would give Palestinians a homeland  – the policy of the United States for many decades.

Blakeman does not call for “equality in sovereignty” over Israel – just the land that has long been expected by the United States to be part of a Palestinian state. So it certainly sounds that if he is not calling for the annexation of land taken in the 1967 war, he was calling for annexation lite.

Blakeman’s meaning is further clarified when the county executive declares “the Palestinian Authority and the international community do not recognize Samaria, which is part of the Jewish homeland.”

This followed Blakeman stating that “the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal.”

If Blakeman is so determined to change U.S. foreign policy as Nassau County executive, he should explain how Israel can remain both a Jewish state and a democratic state with a one-state solution.

The Arab and Palestinian populations are expected to surpass the Jewish population in the not-too-distant future.

But a realistic solution to the conflict in the Mideast doesn’t seem to be Blakeman’s main concern.

Blakeman did nothing to hide his use of the Israeli-Palestinian issues for political purposes.

His release said he was joined in announcing the agreement with Yossi Dagan, the chairman of the regional council that governs Samaria, by Congressman Lee Zeldin.

Zeldin’s congressional district does not represent any part of Nassau County, only Suffolk. But he is the state Republican Party’s choice for governor.

And in case anyone missed how he was using the office of Nassau County to further his political agenda, Blakeman concluded his press release by noting that “Nassau County is home to approximately 230,000 Jewish Residents, including some of the largest synagogues in the United States.”

He added that he is Nassau’s first Jewish county executive and Congressman Zeldin is one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress.”

Unsaid was that there are 35 Jewish members of Congress who are Democrats, including 10 senators.

Blakeman’s pandering to Jewish voters by appearing to support some form of annexation by Israel of occupied territories is especially shameful coming during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s barbaric assault on Ukraine. Its aim? The annexation of Ukraine, which he does not consider a legitimate country.

Preventing the annexation of land by any country has been the basis of the world order since World War II. It is the reason the United States and NATO have united to forcefully oppose Russia’s invasion.

Legitimizing some form of annexation by Israel undermines that argument in Ukraine and everywhere else.

This is especially troubling in light of the support Blakeman and Zeldin have given President Trump in the past

Zeldin, as we have pointed, out rose to national prominence by opposing the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.

That was the impeachment in which Trump was charged with delaying the delivery of military equipment already authorized by Congress to Ukraine as he tried to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter for corruption that never existed.

“I would like you to do us a favor,” Trump told Zelensky when asked for the necessary arms.

The military equipment was much the same weaponry being requested and delivered now to Ukraine, which had been fighting a low-scale war with Russia since 2014 when Putin annexed Crimea and was supporting separatists in two provinces to the east.

Zeldin called the impeachment probe into Trump a “charade,” a “clown show,” and “a cocktail” that is House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff’s “favorite drink to get America drunk,” according to an NBC report.

In seven impeachment deposition transcripts released early in the probe, no Republican spoke more than Zeldin, who is referenced more than 550 times, according to an NBC News tally.

Blakeman was apparently untroubled by Trump’s behavior toward Zelensky. He served as the Nassau County Republican Party’s liaison to the Trump 2020 presidential campaign after the impeachment related to Ukraine.

Now, Putin is seeking to upset the world order that has existed since World War II by annexing Ukraine, saying that his unprovoked assault was intended to de-Nazify the country – a ludicrous claim whose absurdity is underlined by the fact that Zelensky is Jewish.

Both Zeldin and Blakeman have been, at best, inconsistent in their response to attacks against Jews in the United States.

Zeldin was also one of 121 House Republicans to vote against certifying the presidential election results in both Arizona and Pennsylvania – after a mob incited by Trump assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the presidential election.

The mob included a number of neo-Nazis and white supremacists sporting T-shirts saying “Camp Auschwitz” and “6MWE” – code for “6 Million Wasn’t Enough” a not so-veiled reference to the Holocaust.

Blakeman and other Nassau politicians were also silent in November when the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group known for violence, marched without a permit down Sunrise Highway and into Rockville Centre where they stormed stores shouting slogans and passing out flyers detailing the group’s racist and antisemitic philosophies.

The Proud Boys rose to prominence in September 2020 when President Trump was asked about his regularly encouraging white supremacist groups during a presidential debate.

He answered: “Proud Boys,  Stand back and stand by. Somebody has to do something about Antifa and the left.”

The leader of the Proud Boys has frequently been seen giving the Nazi salute.

Now as Putin seeks to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty Blakeman and Zeldin strike an agreement intended to weaken the claims of Palestinian sovereignty for a homeland.

Is this really what Nassau County taxpayers want from its county executive? Is this really what New York state voters would want from a governor?