US President Donald Trump's national security adviser warned Palestinians on Wednesday that Israeli settlements will continue to expand because rising anti-Semitism around the world means more Jews will immigrate to Israel.
Addressing many hot-button global issues in a speech and discussion with foreign diplomats to the United States, Robert O'Brien defended Trump's Mideast peace plan, which was embraced by Israel but rejected by the Palestinians.
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O'Brien said the plan is not "perfect," but urged the Palestinians to negotiate terms of the proposed deal. The deal offers economic benefits that would allow "Palestine" to become the "Singapore of the Middle East," he said.
The Palestinians have roundly denounced the proposal, which offers them limited self-rule in chunks of territory with a capital in parts of east Jerusalem while allowing Israel to annex portions of Judea and Samaria.
"This could be the last opportunity for a two-state solution," O'Brien said at the Meridian International Center. "The Israeli birth rate is strong and is growing because sadly anti-Semitism in Europe and other places around the world is encouraging more Jews to return to Israel. The settlements are going to continue to expand. If this freeze on settlements doesn't hold. If this peace process doesn't work, it may be physically impossible to have a two-state solution."
O'Brien didn't note that the Palestinian population is growing too in both the Palestinian territories and among Israeli Arabs, according to UN statistics. The Palestinian population is growing at roughly 2.4% a year.
Trump's plan would foresee the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but would allow Israel to annex all Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, as well as the strategic Jordan Valley.
US officials had discouraged Netanyahu from proceeding with plans to immediately annex any new territory and had played down the possibility that the release of the plan would make any such move imminent. But after the rollout, Netanyahu vowed to bring his annexation plans to a vote at his next cabinet meeting on Sunday.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said a US-Israeli committee would need to be formed to ensure that any move matches up with the Trump administration's "conceptual map." Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to Trump and a chief architect of the plan, said Israel should wait until after the March 2 general election before annexing territory.
