Trump halted Washington’s quest for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying he would back a single state if it led to peace.
“So I’m looking at two-state and one-state, and 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,” he said.
“I thought for a while the two-state looked like it may be the easier of the two but, honestly, if Israel and the Palestinians are happy, I’m happy with the one they like the best.”
He said Palestinians “have to get rid of some of that hate” and recognise the Jewish state. He also said Israel must retain the overriding security control over the entire area west of the Jordan River.
The second-ranking official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Saeb Erekat, denounced it as an attempt to “bury the two-state solution and eliminate the state of Palestine.”
He implicitly warned Israelis that any single state that emerged would not be a specifically Jewish nation.
“There’s only one alternative,” he told a news conference. “A single democratic state that guarantees the rights of all: Jews, Muslims and Christians.”
l President Donald Trump’s nominee for labour secretary Andrew Puzder abruptly withdrew his nomination yesterday after Senate Republicans balked at supporting him, in part over taxes he belatedly paid on a former housekeeper not authorised to work in the US.