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.”

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