The wailing and gnashing of teeth over Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital continues, but the President’s critics are missing a more important part of his statement. For one of the first-times since he made it to the White House, Trump has now seriously resurrected the ‘two-state solution’ as an option. For Israel’s staunchest defenders and some elements on the American right, Trump’s silence on Palestine had been interpreted as proof that the idea of a Palestinian state was dead and buried. But now, by talking up the two-state solution once again, Trump seems to have confirmed that this isn’t the case: the ‘ultimate deal’ to bring peace to the Middle East that Trump promised could be back on.
Understandably, not everyone is happy at the re-emergence of the two state solution. Some leading hardliners in the Israeli government have expressed their disappointment at Trump’s statement. And Trump’s request that the country maintain the status quo on the Temple Mount, where the Israeli government currently prevents Jews from praying at their holiest site, underlines the impression that little will change as a result of his declaration.
Even the president’s decision to relocate the US embassy has been called into question.
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