On February 15th, The Washington Post editorial board wrote that by President Trump saying that he could live with a single-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he had made the "already slim prospects for an accord even more remote -- he'd increased the chances that one of the relatively peaceful corners of the region will return to conflict."
Palestinians say that a single state would have to grant them equal rights, including full voting rights. Most Israelis who favor a single state imagine an apartheid-style system in which Palestinians would live in areas with local autonomy but without either sovereignty or the same democratic rights as Jews.
President Trump also embraced a diplomatic approach in which Israel would develop closer ties with the Arab Sunni states and those ties would help broker a settlement with the Palestinians. But Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will never support a deal in which Palestinians do not have full political rights. In 2002, Saudi Arabia proposed relations with Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from occupied territories. The proposal was adopted by the Arab league but never went anywhere.
In his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, President Trump asked Netanyahu to hold off for a "little bit" on settlement building. Trump may have been thinking that a lull in settlement building would open the way to a peaceful settlement; however, pauses in settlement building in the past have not moved the needle on a peace agreement. What might move the needle would be a total cutoff of U.S. aid to Israel, including military assistance. President Trump has given no indication that he will cut off or even reduce aid to Israel. I imagine that when Netanyahu was flying back home with his aides, they were laughing all the way about what a chump Trump proved to be in the flesh.
Trump's megalomania was in full flower when he told his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, at a pre-inaugural black-tie dinner, that only he, Kushner, could bring about a Middle East peace settlement.
ADDENDUMS:
*In his first call to President Vladimir Putin, President Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the U.S. This is the New START treaty. During the campaign, Trump had said that the U.S. had been "outsmarted" in the treaty, which he called "START-UP."
*A 71-page proposed regulation that DHHS issued on February 15th, would require about 650,000 more people to submit documents to verify they can get health insurance. Those affected are newlyweds, people switching insurance because of a life event, and Native Americans. There is no evidence that those affected pose a special problem of fraud.
*The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee will move forward to neuter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its power to crack down on predatory business practices. The president could replace the bureau's director at any time.
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