Donald Trump: ‘Two-state solution isn’t going to work’

Former U.S. President Donald Trump said he doesn’t believe a two-state solution is “gonna work”, accusing Israel of wanting “everything.”

“Most people thought it was going to be a two-state solution. I’m not sure a two-state solution anymore is gonna work. Everybody was talking about two states, even when I was there. If Israel’s making progress, they don’t want two states. They want everything. And if Israel’s not making progress, sometimes they talk about two-state solution. Two-state solution seemed to be the idea that people liked most, the policy or the idea that people liked above,” Trump told Time Magazine. 

The former president running against Joe Biden in this year’s election said its his impression that “far fewer people that like” the idea of a two-state solution. Indeed support for a two-state solution has dropped among both Israelis and Palestinians in recent years, in particular among Israelis since October 7.

Trump also promised to support Israel if a war breaks out with Iran: “I have been very loyal to Israel, more loyal than any other president. I’ve done more for Israel than any other president. Yeah, I will protect Israel.”

As for his relationship with Netanyahu, which turned sour in the last period of his presidentship, Trump said he had a “bad experience” with him.

“It had to do with (Qassem) Soleimani, because as you probably know by now, he dropped out just before the attack. And I said, ‘What’s that all about?’ Because that was going to be a joint and all of a sudden, we were told that Israel was not doing it. And I was not happy about that. That was something I never forgot. And it showed me something. I would say that what happened on—the October 7 should have never happened.”

October 7, Trump continued, happened on Netanyahu’s watch: “I think it’s had a profound impact on him, despite everything. Because people said  that shouldn’t have happened. They have the most sophisticated equipment. They had—everything was there to stop that. And a lot of people knew about it, you know, thousands and thousands of people knew about it, but Israel didn’t know about it, and I think he’s being blamed for that very strongly, being blamed. And now you have the hostage situation.”

“And I will say this, Bibi Netanyahu rightfully has been criticised for what took place on October 7,” he added.

“I think that Israel has done one thing very badly: public relations. I don’t think that the Israel Defense Fund or any other group should be sending out pictures every night of buildings falling down and being bombed with possibly people in those buildings every single night, which is what they do.”