Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been at a standstill for two years since US efforts led by Secretary of State John Kerry failed. The sides stopped consultations after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas forged an unexpected pact with Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
Since then France and Russia have offered to host a new round of peace talks. While no decisions have been made to re-start negotiations, Donald Trump has promised to use his business wit to convince the conflicting parties to forge an agreement.<\/p>\n
Calling the Israel-Palestine conflict a \u201cwar that never ends,\u201d<\/em> Trump in his first electoral interview<\/a>\u00a0with The Wall Street Journal promiseed to craft a resolution.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the ultimate deal,\u201d<\/em> Trump said. \u201cAs a deal maker, I\u2019d like to do\u2026 the deal that can\u2019t be made. And do it for humanity\u2019s sake.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Trump, unlike his predecessors, is reportedly prepared to turn a blind eye to the issue of Israeli settlements that are being built on the occupied lands that Palestinians want for their future state. Despite their illegality under international law, Trump believes they do not present an impassable obstacle to peace talks.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Trump does not view the settlements as being an obstacle <\/em>for peace,\u201d<\/em> Trump\u2019s top adviser Jason Greenblatt Greenblatt told Israel\u2019s Army Radio earlier this week.\u201cThe two sides are going to have to decide how to deal with that region, but it\u2019s certainly not Mr. Trump\u2019s view that settlement activity should be condemned and that it is an obstacle to peace. It is not the obstacle to peace,\u201d<\/em> the adviser emphasized.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, after Trump met Barack Obama in the White House, the Republican in his comments <\/a>made to Israeli Hayom newspaper called the Jewish state a \u201cbeacon of hope to countless people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIsrael and America share so many of the same values, such as freedom of speech, freedom of worship and the importance of creating opportunities for all citizens to pursue their dreams,\u201d <\/em>Trump said.<\/p>\n Israel has long maintained that only direct negotiations without the involvement of any third parties could lead to a peace settlement with the Palestinians. Trump seems to share that policy.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe that my administration can play a significant role in helping the parties to achieve a just, lasting peace \u2013 which must be negotiated between the parties themselves, and not imposed on them by others. Israel and the Jewish people deserve no less,\u201d <\/em>the president-elect said.<\/p>\n Trump is currently seeking to potentially appoint over 4,000<\/a>\u00a0staff members that would shape his future administration. But those already close to him have apparently told the Obama administration not to interfere with Trump’s foreign policy approaches. \u201cOn big, transformative issues where President Obama and President-elect Trump are not in alignment, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s in keeping with the spirit of the transition … to try to push through agenda items that are contrary to the president-elect\u2019s positions,\u201d<\/em> an anonymous Trump national security adviser told<\/a>\u00a0Politico on Thursday. \u201cIt’s not going to be just counterproductive, but it will also send mixed messages.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Donald Trump is seeking to negotiate an \u201cultimate deal\u201d between the Palestinians and the Israelis with his staff reportedly warning the current Obama administration not to make any major move that could interfere with Trump\u2019s future policies. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been at a standstill for two years since US efforts led by Secretary of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":278891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-278890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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