link : Trump open to one state solution for Israel-Palestine dispute
Trump open to one state solution for Israel-Palestine dispute
The American president, signaling a new era of comity between the US and Israel after rocky relations under President Barack Obama, said he was more interested in an agreement that leads to peace than in any particular path to get there. Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump broke not only with recent US presidents but also distanced the United States from the prevailing position of much of the world.
While Trump urged Netanyahu to "hold off" on Jewish settlement construction in territory the Palestinians claim for their future state, he offered unwavering support for Israel, a pledge he appeared to substantiate with his vague comments about the shape of any agreement.
While it once appeared that a two-state solution was the "easier of the two" options for the Palestinians and Israel, Trump said he'd be open to alternatives. "I'm looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like," he told reporters. "I can live with either one."
The United States has formally backed the two-state solution as official policy since 2002, when President George W. Bush said in the White House Rose Garden that his vision was "two states, living side by side in peace and security."
In practice, the US already had embraced the policy informally. President Bill Clinton, who oversaw the Oslo Accords in the 1990s that were envisioned as a stepping stone to Palestinian statehood, said before leaving office that resolution to the conflict required a viable Palestinian state.
Separately on Wednesday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called on Netanyahu to end settlement building and expressed "willingness to resume a credible peace process " Also on Wednesday, CIA chief Mike Pompeo secretly held talks in the West Bank with Abbas, the first high-level meeting between the Palestinian leader and a Trump administration official, senior Palestinian officials said. The White House wouldn't comment on the meeting
All serious peace negotiations in recent decades have assumed the emergence of an independent Palestine. The alternatives appear to offer dimmer prospects for peace, given Palestinian demands for statehood. Dozens of countries, including the US, reaffirmed their support for a two-state accord at an international conference in Paris last month, before Trump's inauguration.
In Cairo on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "There is no Plan B to the situation between Palestinians and Israelis but a two-state solution. ... Everything must be done to preserve that possibility."
At one point Wednesday, Trump noted the need for compromise in achieving any Mideast peace. Netanyahu interjected: "Both sides."
On terrorism and other matters, there appeared little daylight between the leaders.
Echoing language used by Trump over a need to combat "radical Islamic extremism," Netanyahu said that for peace to be sustainable, two "prerequisites" must be met: "Recognition of the Jewish state
While a two-state solution would involve Israel ceding occupied territory that is strategically and religiously significant, many in the country believe a single binational state would be even more difficult to maintain. It would mean granting millions of Palestinians citizenship and voting rights, threatening Israel's Jewish majority and its Jewish character.
After weeks of dancing around the issue of expanded Israeli settlement construction, Trump asked Netanyahu to "hold back on settlements for a bit,” while he also insinuated Palestinian children are indoctrinated.
“I think the Palestinians have to get rid of some of that hate that they're taught from a very young age. They're taught tremendous hate. I've seen what they're taught,” Trump said. “And you can talk about flexibility there too, but it starts at a very young age and it starts in the school room. And they have to acknowledge Israel — they're going to have to do that.”
In recent weeks, Netanyahu has approved construction of more than 6,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast War. He also allowed Parliament to pass a law retroactively legalizing some 4,000 settlement homes built on private Palestinian land.
Still, Netanyahu indicated he was open to some sort of arrangement.
"We'll work something out but I'd like to see a deal be made. I think a deal will be made," he said.
American presidents have long struck a delicate balance in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stressing the close US friendship with Israel but also sometimes calling out Israel for actions seen as undermining peace efforts, such as expanding settlements.
Trump and Netanyahu also were to discuss Iran and the president's campaign pledge to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Trump said that he'd like to see the embassy move and said his administration is studying the issue closely. Palestinians and Arab governments have warned that such a move could be deeply destabilizing.
Trump recommitted to preventing Iran developing a nuclear weapons through diplomacy, but said he would do more.
"One of the worst deals I've ever seen is the Iran deal, he said. "My administration has already imposed new sanctions on Iran, and I will do more to prevent Iran from ever developing — I mean ever — a nuclear weapon."
Netanyahu committed to tightening nuclear sanctions through the UN in a Trump presidency.
“One thing is preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons — something that President Trump and I think are deeply committed to do. And we are obviously going to discuss that,” Netanyahu said, claiming that Iranian nuclear missiles are inscribed with "Israel must be destroyed.”
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