The other day, The Washington Post and The Jerusalem Post carried identical front page headlines: “Trump warns Israel: Stop announcing new settlements.” A White House official has said that all parties should cease “unilateral actions” and affirmed the two-state solution. This is the first time the new administration has confirmed that Trump is committed to a comprehensive two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be negotiated between the parties.
We have also learned that the White House was annoyed that it was not consulted on Israel’s unprecedented announcement of 5,500 new settlement housing units over the last two weeks since Trump has been in power. The two readers’ comments I read below this news item in The Jerusalem Post were more interesting. One reader raised the question “Does Israel need to consult with the White House? Israel has its own system of elected government and needs no permission from the president of Gambia, the US or Cuba?” In response to this, another reader wrote, “Israel needs America for money and defense. Without America, Israel would have been history long ago!“
Trump’s warning apart, there is a view in some circles that this is just match-fixing compared to what he had to say about Israel during his campaign. Anyway, for the Palestinians’ sake, let us hope it is real for now.
Is this real or match-fixing?
