A senior figure within US President-elect Donald Trump's innermost circle has recently said that the establishment of a Palestinian state was not under consideration. The source, who belongs to Trump's and his family's closest orbit of confidants and has carried numerous crucial assignments for him previously, made these comments during recent private conversations at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. The senior Trump-world persona offered no explanation for this position, simply stating that "it's clear this won't happen."
Notably, Trump in December spoke about what kind of Mideast peace he would back. "I support whatever solution we can do to get peace. There are other ideas other than two-state, but I support whatever is necessary to get not just peace, [but] a lasting peace. It can't go on where every five years you end up in tragedy. There are other alternatives," he said at the time.
On Tuesday, Mar-a-Lago hosted a Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast conference, bringing together Christian and Jewish participants as part of the effort to bolster Israel-US relations. American and Israeli speakers uniformly expressed firm opposition to both the establishment of a Palestinian state and any Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria. They emphasized that both religious and security considerations make it imperative for Israel to maintain its presence in these territories.
In a related development, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, during his visit to Italy on Monday, addressed the ongoing discussion about a "Palestinian state," stating that "the two-state solution is a slogan and an illusion. A 'Palestinian state' in the heart of our country would be a Hamas terror state that would undermine stability in the entire region and severely harm Israel's security."
