Trump Drops Palestinian State From US Agenda

On the eve of the White House meeting with Israel’s leader, CIA Director Mike Pompeo met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah – where the American intelligence chief relayed “reassuring messages about the two-state solution” to the Palestinians, according to Israeli news site Haaretz, citing a source familiar with the meeting.

President Donald Trump’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday was brief but gave the world new insights into the two countries’ partnership going forward.

Mr Trump’s comments confirmed an earlier remark from White House officials saying the United States was considering more than one option for peace.

US President Donald Trump broke with his last three predecessors Wednesday by forgoing the US commitment to a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians. Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said on Thursday resolving the conflict would require a two-state solution.

Trump’s position is consistent with past USA presidents, though he offered conflicting statements on settlements during his campaign.

Trump’s claim echoed a long-held Israeli right-wing position that Palestinians are unable to make peace because they hate Israelis and Jews, without acknowledging their grievances related to Israeli aggression, occupation policies and West Bank settlement expansion. “I can live with either one”, Trump told reporters after meeting Netanyahu in Washington. “And, I want to assure you, the United States has no better ally than Israel”, Netanyahu said in his opening remarks.

Nor was the apparent shift in US policy welcomed on the worldwide stage, with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying there was no alternative to a two-state solution. US policy for decades has been to encourage Israel to allow the area to become a Palestinian state.

Seventy-one percent of Americans view Israel favorably, the fourth straight year the Jewish state has received a favorable rating of 70 percent or higher, a Gallup poll found.

Obama often warned that Israeli settlement construction could make a two-state solution impossible, and that a one-state solution would put the future of the Israel in question.

“We’ll work something out but I’d like to see a deal be made”.

Trump then said, “Doesn’t sound too optimistic, but he’s a good negotiator”. He also said that these very values are increasingly being attacked by radical Islamic terror.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said after talks with his USA counterpart Rex Tillerson in Germany on Thursday that Washington’s position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains “confusing”. And what is he hinting at when he says that Israel will have to “hold back” on building in the territories?