Many of the Palestinians killed have been attackers, while others have been shot dead by Israeli security forces during clashes.
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Trump said it would be up to the parties to decide what concessions they would make and he learned in negotiations that participants shouldn’t announce in advance what they would accept or reject. When asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the candidate whiffed.
“A lot will have to do with Israel and whether or not Israel wants to make the deal – whether or not Israel’s willing to sacrifice certain things”, Trump said. “Believe me, they haven’t done what I’ve done”.
“Stupidly, you want to give money….You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money”. “He refuses to say it. There’s something going on with him that we don’t know about”, he said to applause.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Thursday questioned Israel’s commitment to take the necessary steps in pursuing a lasting peace with the Palestinians.
Trump was booed when he ducked a question at the forum on whether Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel.
One of Trump’s rivals for the GOP nomination, Florida Sen. “Obama is the worst thing that’s every happened to Israel”, Trump said.
But in a clear break from Rubio and other Republican national security hawks, Cruz suggested the United States would be safer with Assad continuing in his role as Syrian president, just as the world would have been safer had Middle East dictators not been toppled in Libya, Egypt and Iraq.
Still, the billionaire businessman who has made his skills as a dealmaker a key piece of his pitch to voters was visibly enthusiastic about the prospect of tackling the intractable foreign policy challenge.
Trump added: “I’m a great dealmaker”.
“It’s become so defining, it’s like he has it written on his forehead”, Trump said.
“I don’t know that Israel has the commitment to make it, and I don’t know the other side has the commitment to make it”, Trump said. “Israel’s given a lot, but hasn’t been given credit”.
The rest of his answer, about a planned post-Christmas trip to Israel, was interrupted by scattered jeering.
Still, the specter of Adelson’s nod looms large for the GOP field. “This is not a real estate deal with two sides arguing over money”.
“I’ll be able to tell in one sit-down meeting with the real leaders”, he said.
Israeli authorities said today that they had arrested a number of alleged Jewish extremists over the firebombing of a Palestinian home that killed a toddler and his parents in an attack that drew global condemnation. “I will know very quickly whether or not I’ll be able to put that deal together”.
“I’ll tell you what, we have a president that refuses to use the term”. Palestinians say it is rooted in frustration over years of failed talks and lack of hope of gaining statehood. The U.S. does not now recognize the Palestinian territories as an independent state, though the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in 2012 to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state”.
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Earlier in the day, Israel demolished the West Bank home of a Palestinian man who it claims masterminded the October 1 killing of a Jewish settler couple in front of their young children.
