Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Trump: More settlements hinder peace in Mideast
JERUSALEM — President Donald Trump warned Israel on Friday that he did not think that building more homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank was “good for peace” and said he wanted Israel to “act reasonably” as his administration explores paths to broker peace talks.
Trump’s comments to an Israeli newspaper, published Friday, appeared as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with advisers to plot strategy for his first face-to-face meeting in the White House with Trump on Wednesday.
Israel considers the prime minister’s first official meeting with the American president as vitally important — a way to reset relations after a years of feuding and policy clashes with the Obama administration.
Since Trump’s inauguration, Israel’s pro-settlement government hoped Trump would give a green light to a building boom in the West Bank on land that Jewish residents think was promised to them by God and that Palestinians want for a future state.
But those expectations might be overly optimistic.
In the interview with Israel Hayom, a widely circulated free newspaper owned by Netanyahu’s patron, the Vegas casino magnate and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, Trump offered new insights into his thinking on the longrunning conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
Adelson dined at the White House on Thursday night.
Trump suggested that he was reviewing his campaign promise to the move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s declared capital Jerusalem — a relocation that many Israelis, including the mayor of Jerusalem, thought was a done deal.
“I’m thinking about it. I’m learning the issue, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump was quoted as saying in the interview, conducted in English and translated into Hebrew. “It’s not an easy decision.”
Former U.S. diplomats, Palestinians and Arab leaders such as King Abdullah II of Jordan have warned Trump the embassy move could stoke religious passions and spark violence, as Muslims rally to defend what they see as a threat against their holy places in the heart of Jerusalem.
Trump said he wanted to explore the possibilities for making what he has called “the ultimate deal,” a peace pact between Israel and the Palestinians. He is deploying his son-in-law — and now senior adviser on the Middle East — Jared Kushner to the task.
“No deal is a good deal if it isn’t good for all sides,” Trump told the newspaper. “We are currently in a process that has been going on for a long time. Decades. A lot of people think that it can’t be done. And a lot of smart people around me claim that you can’t reach an agreement. I don’t agree. I think we can reach an agreement and that we need to reach an agreement.”
In Netanyahu’s government, his right-wing flank, including members of his own Likud Party, are pressing the prime minister to abandon his support for the two-state solution, which he professed in a speech at an Israeli university in 2009.
Netanyahu’s tepid support for a Palestinian state has often been questioned by European leaders as well as former Secretary of State John Kerry. Netanyahu has wavered on his commitment, once promising voters there would no Palestinian state on his watch and just recently assuring his cabinet he would only support what he called a “state-minus” for the Arabs in the West Bank.
In the interview, Trump said, “I want Israel to act reasonably in the peace process and that it will finally happen after so many years. And maybe there will even be a possibility of a bigger peace than just Israel and the Palestinians.”
Trump appeared to be suggesting that peace talks would involve moderate Arab nations such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The 2002 Arab peace initiative, brokered by the Saudis, promise Israel peaceful relations and recognition, in exchange for a full Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.