Speaking on the possibility of negotiating peace between the Palestinian Authority and the nation of Israel, President Donald Trump spoke the plain truth about what is required for peace.
Namely, Palestine MUST recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Trump: Palestinians "taught hate from a very young age… I've seen what they're taught" (remarkable stmt from a POTUS seeking a peace deal) pic.twitter.com/X7nlPigFpa
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 15, 2017
“I think the Palestinians have to get rid of some of the hate that they’re taught from a very young age,” the president said. The president made clear, in no uncertain terms, that the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a legitimate nation state with a right to exist.
“They have to acknowledge Israel. They’re gonna have to do that. There’s no way a deal can be made if they’re not ready to acknowledge a very, very great and important country.”
The president also caused heartburn in the media by refusing to commit the United States to a “two-state solution” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"I like the one that both parties like," Pres. Trump weighs in on possible 2-state solution in Israel-Palestine https://t.co/rNB3FSAtTZ pic.twitter.com/VEQX05xdlm
— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 15, 2017
This is ASTONISHING. US president live in the White House tearing up decades of U.S. foreign policy on Israel/Palestine.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 15, 2017
A couple things.
1) That’s not a radical position. All Trump said is he would be fine with any peace agreement both parties agreed to. If both parties agree to a one state solution, that means everybody’s happy, right? So what’s the problem?
2) As Josh Hammer explains over at The Resurgent, we all should embrace alternatives to the “failed ‘two-state solution’”:
As I noted on February 3, the post-Oslo Accords framework for a two-state solution has, since at least the time of the Second Intifada, been deader than a Samantha Bee comedy routine. It is long past time for pro-moral clarity, pro-Western civilization, counter-jihadism conservatives to eschew the hackneyed bromides of the Council on Foreign Relations echo chamber and think outside the box on this issue. I described my ideal solution in November, and Hebron’s proud Jew Yishai Fleisher explained another five alternatives in an incisive New York Times op-ed yesterday. To say that there are no alternatives to the traditional two-state solution is, to borrow Erick’s phrasing, a “talking point of hacks and morons.”