CMEP Bulletin: Two States Versus One

CMEP Bulletin: Two States Versus One

Meeting Israel’s Netanyahu, Trump Avoids Commitment to Two-State Solution [Reuters]
According to Reuters, “[President Donald Trump] urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to curb settlement activity but avoided any explicit endorsement of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a longstanding bedrock of U.S. Middle East policy.” Trump told a joint news conferences with Netanyahu, “I’m looking at two states and one state, and I like the one both parties like. I can live with either one.”

Senate Grills US Envoy to Israel Pick After Trump Scraps Two-State Policy [CNN]
David Friedman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the next US ambassador to Israel, underwent a Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. According to CNN, “Friedman has backed Israeli settlements, which are seen as illegal under international law and as an impediment to a peace deal by Palestinians. He has opposed the idea of Palestinian statehood [and] raised millions of dollars for a settlement near the Palestinian city of Ramallah. Sen. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned Friedman’s dismissal of the two-state solution as a ‘damaging anachronism” and told him his views “constitute an unprecedented break’ from US policy.”

Click here to read the full Churches for Middle East Peace Bulletin, including links to these stories.