Trump: Israel will pay the ‘higher price’ in peace deal with Palestinians

Touting his as-yet-unrevealed Mideast peace plan, Trump said Israelis won big with the embassy move to Jerusalem and that now it’s payback time. 

By: Adina Katz, World Israel News

Israel will pay the higher price in peace negotiations with the Palestinians, President Donald Trump declared at a campaign rally in Charleston, West Virginia, Tuesday.

Now that Israel won “very big” with the recent US embassy move to Jerusalem, the Palestinians “will get something very good.” Trump said. “It’s their turn next.”

Trump, who has been touting his as-yet-unrevealed Mideast peace plan as the “deal of the century,” said that relocating the embassy was a necessary step.

“If there’s ever going to be peace with the Palestinians, this was a good thing to have done. We took it off the table. In past negotiations, they never got past Jerusalem. Now Israel will have to pay a higher price, because it’s off the table. The Palestinians will get something very good. It’s their turn next.”

Before officially declaring Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital last December and subsequently carrying out the embassy move, the president was besieged with calls from international leaders urging him not to go through with it, he said.

“And I now understand why many presidents before me said they were going to do it and didn’t do it. Because I was inundated with calls from foreign leaders. Every country: ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it, please don’t do it, don’t do it!’”

In return, however, the Israelis will have to compromise, he stressed.

Since the Trump administration announced its recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, US relations with the Palestinians have deteriorated significantly. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to meet with American officials during their visit to the region in July and has repeatedly stated that Washington cannot be the main broker in any future negotiations.