Elaborating on reports out of Israel’s Defense Ministry yesterday, the State Department confirmed the US is in ongoing talks with Israel about limitations to be placed on the expansion of Israel’s settlements in the future, with an eye toward giving the Trump Administration a chance to try to start a new peace process.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner insisted that the administration is still “looking at the situation” and hasn’t made any specific decisions on the next step. Still, Trump has made clear that runaway settlement expansion is a threat to peace talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had recently reported that the two nations don’t see eye-to-eye on the settlement expansions, while Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned against moves to annex the West Bank, saying the US has warned it would cause an immediate crisis in bilateral relations.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely expressed outrage at Lieberman’s comments, insisting Trump has no “coherent” Israel policy, and that Israel should continue to act as it wishes, irrespective of US preferences on the matter.
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As Jason Ditz says: ” Still, Trump has made clear that runaway settlement expansion is a threat to peace talks.”
Trump had also sent a clear message to Netanyahu that he wasn’t going to interfere with Israeli expansion and he also said that he was in favour of abandoing the two-state solution.
As usual, Trump opens his ignorant cakehole and the message comes out of both sides at the same time, one contradicting the other.
In defense of Jason Ditz, he usually does a good job of getting the whole story out. I sincerely hope he doesn’t start trending toward support of Trump when it’s not due!
Oh my ! Is another ‘slap on the wrist’ coming ? I hope they do it gently and diplomatically so that poor Israel will not be too dismayed.
The two state fairy tale isn’t going to create a two state solution, it will just slow the one state solution’s progress. It protects against international opposition because it obscures the truth. Through the BDS movement is the only way a two state solution will ever happen.