President Trump struck a friendlier, more optimistic tone than Barack Obama about the U.S. alliance with Israel during his first appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, downplaying the importance of a “two-state solution” and backing off his predecessor’s harsh criticism of Israeli settlements.
“So I’m looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like,” Trump said. “I’m very happy with the one that both parties like … I can live with either one. I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two, but honestly, if Bibi and if the Palestinians — if Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I’m happy with the one they like the best.”
The president encouraged Netanyahu to pause the expansion of Israeli settlements, but he held back on the direct condemnation that characterized the Obama administration’s position toward settlements.
“I’d like to see you hold back on settlements for a little bit,” Trump told Netanyahu before a private meeting at the White House. “I’d like to see a deal be made.”
Echoing the Israeli leader, Trump suggested Palestinians’ deep-rooted hatred for Israelis had become an obstacle to peace in the region, and he slammed a United Nations resolution passed during the waning days of the Obama presidency that had conflated the actions of Israelis and Palestinians.
Trump’s ambivalence about the two-state solution — which would see Palestinians gain a formal, recognized state alongside Israel — marked a significant departure from the Obama administration’s insistence on such an arrangement in its dealings with Israel.
A senior White House official had hinted at the coming shift earlier in the week, saying Tuesday that the elusive two-state solution to violence that has raged between Israel and the Palestinians was not a requirement for achieving peace.
“It’s something the two sides have to agree to,” the official had said. “It’s not for us to impose that vision.”
Obama ended his rocky eight-year relationship with Israel by allowing a resolution to pass the United Nations Security Council that denounced the existence of Israeli settlements.
Netanyahu bristled at the move, telling Obama: “Friends don’t take friends to the security council.” Obama could have instructed the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to veto the resolution, but he instead directed her to abstain from the vote in what many observers viewed as a slight against Israel.
On Wednesday, Trump said Israel has been treated “very, very unfairly” by the United Nations.
Relations between the Israeli prime minister and Obama had grown increasingly icy during negotiations over the nuclear agreement with Iran, which Netanyahu vigorously opposed both before and after it was finalized in 2015.
And since the early days of his presidency, Obama had been critical of Israeli settlement-building, putting constant pressure on Israel’s leaders to cease construction of its settlements.
The Obama administration frequently characterized settlement-building as the primary hurdle to achieving a peace deal between Israel and Palestine — a view Trump clearly abandoned during his appearance with Netanyahu on Wednesday.
Trump acknowledged that any peace agreement would likely require “flexibility” from the Israelis, but he stopped short of outlining any conditions for Netanyahu to meet.
“The United States will encourage a peace and really, a great peace deal,” Trump said. “We’ll be working on it very, very diligently.”
“But it is the parties themselves who must directly negotiate such an agreement,” the president added. “As with any successful negotiations, both sides will have to make compromises.”
A frequent critic of the Iran nuclear deal, Trump promised on Wednesday to stand up to an emboldened Tehran — another departure from the policies of his predecessor.
Obama advocated forcefully for the Iran deal and virtually ignored Israel’s pleas to impose stronger measures against the Islamic Republic.
“The security challenges faced by Israel are enormous, including the threat of Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” Trump said Wednesday. “One of the worst deals I’ve ever seen is the Iran deal. My administration has already imposed new sanctions on Iran, and I will do more to prevent Iran from ever developing — I mean ever — a nuclear weapon.”
