‘Will end Israelpalestine strife’
Trump says dispute “not as difficult” as believed, claims will work hard to “get it done”
Every American president in recent memory has taken a shot at resolving the Israel-palestine dispute and President Donald Trump has also started his attempt, saying it may not be as tough as it is made out to be.
As has been his style, Trump, in remarks delivered alongside visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas multiple times over the day at the White House on Wednesday, revealed no details of how he planned to accomplish that or timelines.
“It’s something that I think is, frankly, maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years,” he said. “We need two willing parties. We believe Israel is willing. We believe you're willing. And if you are willing, we are going to make a deal.”
“We want to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians. We will get it done. We will be working so hard to get it done,” he said, adding, “I think there is a very good chance and I think we will.”
It will not be as easy as that, pundits and experts averred. And Abbas’s remarks made that abundantly clear soon enough — in which he spoke of a two-state solution, with the Palestinian state along boundaries that existed before the 1967 war.
He also mentioned the vexatious issues of the return of refugees and prisoners.
Most of this will not fly with Israelis. And during a visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump had indicated he was willing to drop long-standing US support for a two-state solution, and settle for a singlestate solution.
If that’s what both parties wanted, he added. The Palestinians don’t, as Abbas let him know in unambiguous terms on Tuesday, while expressing confidence in his “courageous stewardship…as well as your great negotiating ability”.
In response, Trump said he was willing to accept the challenge. “We’ll start a process which hopefully will lead to peace. Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve always heard that perhaps the toughest deal to make is the deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Let's see if we can prove them wrong.”
US President Donald Trump, after the last failed attempt, said he wasn’t done trying to repeal and replace his predecessor’s health care law. With his full and active support, House Republicans took another crack at it on Thursday, hoping and insisting they had the votes to win this time.
If passed, the American Health Care Act, as the new legislation is called, will go to the senate for passage for it to replace Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act — also called Obamacare — which Republicans have ranted against since its enactment in 2011.
A “yes” vote in the House will be the first major legislative victory for Trump, whose famed deal-making abilities came under blistering attack the last time they tried, and failed. The Republican leadership, who couldn’t guarantee the numbers needed from its own members for it to pass, had withdrawn it instead of letting it fall.
Passage in the House, however, will not mean the end of Obamacare. Many Senate Republicans do not agree with everything in the House legislation and more negotiations and changes will follow before the party is able to deliver on its chief poll promise of years, and that may not be the replacement of all of Obama’s healthcare provisions, lock, stock and barrel.
Some provisions will survive, such as the one prohibiting insurers from turning down clients with pre-existing medical conditions, which are extremely popular with Americans, cutting across party lines and President Trump himself has said he would like to retain it in the replacement bill.