Obama: Two state solution opportunity may be passing

Asked about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama tells the press conference that the UN resolution was meant to send a wake up call to Israel that the window on reaching a two-state solution could be closing.

“It was important for us to signal — to send a wake up call to Israel that this moment may be passing and Israelis and Palestinians need to understand that,” he says.

He says he continues to be worried that the “status quo is unsustainable” in Israel. He says his administration has tried to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution because he does not “see an alternative to it.”

He admits that his administration realized that they could not force the sides to make peace, but only facilitate it.

He also warns Trump that he should be careful about making large moves in the region without thinking them through — a possible reference to the new administration’s controversial plan to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

“The actions that we take have enormous consequences and ramifications. We are the biggest kid on the block,” he says. “It is right and appropriate for the new president to test old assumptions, reexamine the old way of doing things. But if you are going to make big shifts in policy make sure you thought it through. Actions typically create reactions. You don’t want to do things off the cuff when it comes to an issue this volatile.”