JERUSALEM (AP) – An Israeli newspaper quoted President Donald Trump on Friday as saying that settlement expansion in land claimed by the Palestinians does not advance peace, indicating there might be some difficult discussions on the topic in a high profile White House meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week.
Netanyahu has been on a settlement construction binge since Trump took office, apparently believing the new administration would be far more lenient on the settlements than his predecessor.
But in an interview with a pro-Netanyahu daily published Friday, Trump said: “They (settlements) don’t help the process. I can say that. There is so much land left. And every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left. But we are looking at that, and we are looking at some other options we’ll see. But no, I am not somebody that believes that going forward with these settlements is a good thing for peace.”
The remarks came in a Trump interview with Yisrael Hayom, a free newspaper financed by American billionaire and Netanyahu backer Sheldon Adelson a few days before the prime minister visits the White House. The two leaders are scheduled to meet at the White House on Feb. 15.
The Palestinians seek the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war from Jordan, as parts of their future independent state – a position that has wide international backing.