Trump questions if Israel ‘is interested in making peace’
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump says he is not sure that Israel is interested in making peace with the Palestinians.
In an interview published yesterday in the ‘Israel Hayom’ daily, Mr Trump was quoted as saying the Palestinians “are not looking to make peace”. But he also questioned Israel’s interest in striking a deal, saying: “I am not necessarily sure that Israel is looking to make peace.” He said Jewish West Bank settlements “very much complicate” peacemaking.
The president spoke to a paper owned by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a Trump backer and staunch Israel supporter.
Mr Trump’s approach towards Israel has appeared to be more lenient than with the Palestinians, with whom he has tangled publicly since his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last year.
Meanwhile, Hollywood star Robert De Niro took aim at the Trump administration’s stance on climate change, telling a packed audience at Dubai’s World Government Summit that he was visiting from a “backward” country suffering from “temporary insanity”.
He said that in the country he’s describing, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency suggested global warming may be a good thing for humanity. “I am talking about my own country, the United States of America,” Mr De Niro said. “We don’t like to say we are a ‘backward’ country so let’s just say we’re suffering from a case of temporary insanity.”
He received applause when he said the US “will eventually cure itself by voting our dangerous leader” out of office.