Israeli security considerations trump Palestinian statehood, US ambassador says

Israeli security considerations would come before Palestinian statehood, the US ambassador to Israel says a day after US President Donald Trump said he favored a two-state solution.

David Friedman for the first time also publicly referred to “a two-state solution,” referring to Israel and a future Palestinian state, during an interview with the Israeli public broadcaster Kan. He said that he has difficulty with the term because it means “so many different things to so many different people.”

A two-minute excerpt of the interview was broadcast on social media and on the Kan website. The full interview is scheduled to be aired Thursday evening.

Friedman emphasizes that “Where Palestinian autonomy and Israeli security intersect, we err on the side of Israeli security,”

“It is a very different view than I think has been expressed in the past,” he says, adding that Trump has been “the most pro-Israel president in the history of the United States.”

Friedman says the Trump administration’s peace plan is already ready and that the United States would never propose something that deprived Israel of the right to maintain security control.

— JTA