American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman hinted at the United States’ upcoming plan for Middle East peace in a preview of an exclusive interview Israeli network Walla released on Thursday morning.
“I think the settlements are part of Israel,” he said. ” I think that was always the expectation when resolution 242 was adopted in 1967… The idea was that Israel would be entitled to secure borders. The existing borders, the 1967 borders, were viewed by everybody as not secure, so Israel would retain a meaningful portion of the West Bank, and it would return that which it didn’t need for peace and security. “
“So,” he continued, “There was always supposed to be some notion of expansion into the West Bank, but not necessarily expansion into the entire West Bank. And I think that’s exactly what, you know, Israel has done. I mean, they’re only occupying 2% of the West Bank. There is important nationalistic, historical [and] religious significance to those settlements, and I think the settlers view themselves as Israelis and Israel views the settlers as Israelis.”
When asked if some settlements would have to be given up in a potential peace deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Friedman only responded, “Wait and see.”
And, when asked about a timeline for details of the proposed peace plan to go public, he replied, “I would speculate within months, but we’re not holding ourselves to any hard deadline. We’ll try to get it done right, not done fast.”
Friedman, who was personally appointed by President Donald Trump, is considered to be one of the most staunchly supportive of Israeli ambassadors yet dispatched to Israel. His selection was a controversial one, due to his reported links to settlement funding and controversial statements about the Jewish Left.
US envoy Jason Greenblatt is currently in Israel. After just nearly eight months in the job, his meetings surrounding the peace process and the administration’s plans have been highly secretive.
Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/PM-to-board-first-El-Al-flight-to-Argentina-since-Eichmanns-1960-kidnapping-504318
No comments:
Post a Comment