Trump muddles two-state message hours after giving it
NEW YORK – Eight hours after announcing his preference for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, US President Donald Trump equivocated, returning to his previous position that he will be satisfied “if they do a single, if they do a double,” so long as the parties settle the conflict conclusively.
“I think probably two-state is more likely,” Trump said at a news conference in New York. “Well, I think the two-state will happen. I think we’ll go down the two-state road.”
But “if the Israelis and the Palestinians want one state, that’s okay with me,” he added. “If they want two states, that’s okay with me.”
Trump offered a similar line at the very start of his presidency, declining to explicitly endorse a two-state solution that has divided Israel’s right-wing government, but has remained the foundation of peace efforts for more than 30 years.
Trump said that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law leading the administration’s peace initiative, has in his heart a love of Israel but also an understanding that the Palestinians must accept the outcome of any negotiation that is going to result in peace.
“It takes two groups of people to be happy,” Trump said. The president identified two primary reasons why he believes the “deal of the century” has been so hard to achieve.