Trump reboots Mideast policy
Palestinian state isn’t necessary for peace, he says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump jettisoned two decades of diplomatic orthodoxy on Wednesday by declaring that the United States no longer will insist on the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.
Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for the first time since becoming president, Trump promised a concerted effort to bring the two sides together, suggesting a regional effort involving an array of Arab nations. But he said that he is flexible about how an agreement would look and that he will not be bound by past assumptions.
“I’m looking at two-state and one-state” formulations, Trump said during a White House news conference with Netanyahu. “I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”
At the same time, Trump urged Netanyahu to temporarily stop new housing construction in the West Bank while he pursues a deal, echoing a position past presidents have taken.
“I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit,” he told Netanyahu.
Trump’s position on a twostate solution discarded a policy that has underpinned America’s role in peacemaking since the Clinton administration and raised a host of thorny questions.
The Palestinians are highly unlikely to accept anything short of a sovereign state, and a single Israeli state encompassing the Palestinians would either leave them as second-class citizens or would no longer be majority Jewish, given the growth rate of the Arab population.
Still, long before Trump’s ascension, momentum for side-byside states had faded not just in Washington but also in the Middle East, where many Israelis and Palestinians have given up hope or changed their minds about the concept. The leaders of both sides face domestic difficulties and seem unenthusiastic about the compromises that might be required to get to a mutually agreeable resolution.
The trick is that no one has offered a plausible alternative that would satisfy both camps, leaving the conflict in a state of suspended animation.
Netanyahu is under pressure from his right-leaning coalition to abandon the two-state solution and even annex parts of the West Bank. And the Palestinian Authority faces pressure from Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza and is sworn to Israel’s destruction.
Trump did not address these dynamics, instead emphasizing his confidence that he could produce a breakthrough.
“I think we’re going to make a deal,” he said, describing that as personally important to him. “It might be a bigger and better deal than people in this room even understand.”
Calls for Israeli flexibility
Trump emphasized that Israel would have to be flexible in any future talks.
“As with any successful negotiation, both sides will have to make compromises,” Trump said.
Turning to Netanyahu, he asked, “You know that, right?”
Netanyahu responded with a smile. “Both sides,” he said, emphasizing the first word.
Trump’s dismissal of the twostate solution seemed reminiscent of his remark during the transition that the U.S. should not be bound by the decades-old “one China” policy that recognizes a single Chinese government in Beijing and withholds diplomatic ties from Taiwan. That statement infuriated the Chinese leadership, and Trump eventually circled back to endorse the policy.
If Trump is serious about pursuing Mideast peace, analysts said, he may have to find his way back to the two-state solution.
“If you do a systematic analysis of the situation, there is no other option,” said Daniel Kurtzer, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt. “There are Israelis who believe they could get away with giving the Palestinians minimal political rights, but they are fooling themselves. Unless the Palestinians do a 180, it is just inconceivable.”
Palestinian leaders lamented Trump’s stance, seeing it as an abandonment by the United States, which has been the main patron of the Palestinian Authority. But Ghaith al-Omari, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Palestinians could draw comfort from Trump’s eagerness for a new peace push and his warning to Israel on settlements.
“They will see an opening in, how do you translate the president’s desire for peace into something concrete?” Omari said.
Distraction from Iran
Netanyahu looked forward to Trump’s inauguration, the first time in his four terms as prime minister that he has had a Republican president as a partner. After years of tension with Obama, who pressed Israel for more concessions for peace, Netanyahu anticipated vigorous support from the new president.
But Trump’s focus on the Palestinian conflict and his push for a pause in settlements distracted from the topic Netanyahu wanted to address, the threat from Iran.
At the news conference, Trump again called Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran “one of the worst deals I’ve ever seen” but said nothing about abandoning it or even renegotiating it. Instead, he simply vowed to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
“I will do more to prevent Iran from ever developing — I mean ever — a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Nor did Trump repeat his campaign vow to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, saying only, “I’d love to see that happen,” adding, “We’ll see what happens.”