Senior Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi (Carsten Sohnderivative/Wikicommons)
The Palestinians are upset that the Trump administration is not adopting their views on foreign policy.
The White House’s apparent break from a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is deeply upsetting the Palestinian leadership.
Speaking to reporters ahead of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior White House official suggested Tuesday that peace between Israel and the Palestinians does not necessarily have to come in the form of a two-state solution — a position that could represent a dramatic shift from what has been US policy for more than 20 years.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian leader and a member of the PLO’s executive committee, said in a statement that by withdrawing support for a two-state solution, the Trump administration “would be destroying the chances for peace and undermining American interests, standing and credibility abroad.”
“Accommodating the most extreme and irresponsible elements in Israel and in the White House is no way to make responsible foreign policy,” she said in a statement.
“This does not make sense,” Ashrawi told AFP. “This is not a responsible policy and it does not serve the cause of peace.”
“They cannot just say that without an alternative,” she added.
“The two-state solution is not something we just came up with,” Husam Zomlot, an adviser to Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas, said Wednesday. “It is an international consensus and decision after decades of Israel’s rejection of the one-state democratic formula.”
It was not clear whether the Trump administration had intended to declare a major policy shift during the briefing Tuesday night.
Trump and Netanyahu will meet later on Wednesday for the first time since the US election in November. They last met in September.
By: World Israel News Staff
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