Bolton’s comments following Trump’s remarks that Israel will pay a high price in talks for Jerusalem recognition.
President Donald Trump’s comments in West Virginia Tuesday that Israel would have to pay a high price in negotiations with the Palestinians for the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem does not represent a change of American policy, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said Wednesday.
Bolton, speaking at a press conference at the King David Hotel, said that Trump is a “deal maker,” and that he and anyone else would expect the Palestinians to say after the embassy move, “So, we didn’t get that one, we’ll get something else.”
The “fundamental point,” Bolton said, “is that ultimately this is something the parties are going to have to agree on. One of the most cogent things I’ve ever heard about the Middle East was something that Secretary of State Jim Baker said during the George H.W. Bush administration: ‘We can’t want peace more than the parties themselves’.”
The parties, Bolton said, will need to “talk about it between themselves and see what, if anything, the price of that [the Jerusalem move] was.”
Bolton added that the embassy move “ in and of itself brings reality to a negotiation that honestly – for decades – has been conducted in an air of unreality.”
Bolton, on the last day of three days of intensive talks here, said that it was a “sad outcome” for the Palestinian people that “all they got now is a choice between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.”
If Hamas cared more about the people of Gaza than their own political priorities, “we wouldn’t have a lot of these troubles” that are plaguing the area,” he said.
“There are a lot of prospects really to find ways here to resolve some of these problems and give the people of Palestine who have been used as agents by radical leaders over the years for their own political purposes, to give them and their families a chance for a decent life going forward,” he added.
Bolton said that was the objective of the long-awaited US peace plan that US President Donald Trump is overseeing, and that he hoped that this would be evident when the US rolls out the plan. He gave no indication, however, of when that might be.
@ dreuveni:
Edgar and Dreuveni,
President Trump HAS declared that a “quid pro quo” will be expected from Israel, in return for recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He said it in the middle of a long speech in West Virginia; but he definitely said it (as Mr. Keinan correctly pointed out) — that Israel will be expected to make concessions:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1032064440332705792
This is what Daniel Pipes warned us of, many weeks ago:
http://www.danielpipes.org/18394/interview-us-embassy-move-may-bring-regrets
Secretary Bolton may spin those words any way he wants; but the fact is that Pres. Trump has said what he has said and, whether it’s for us or against us, the President tends to do what the President says.
I have supported Pres. Trump, and will continue to support him (He certainly is a better deal than Schumer, Pelosi and Waters); but the Bible tells us that ALL nations will some day, likely some day in just a few years, attack Israel:
Zech.14
[1] Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
[2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
We also know that the “leader of the world” will make a deal with the Jewish people in the last days, and then break that deal:
Dan.9
[27] And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
I don’t expect that particular ruler to be Donald J. Trump; but he COULD be. Trump, after all, is committed to making AMERICA great again, not Israel. This is as it should be: The Jews are God’s people, not America’s, nor even Israel’s:
Judg.7
[1] Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
[2] And the LORD said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.
We are facing interesting times.
The quid pro quo for Jerusalem was paid multiple times up front. There is nothing left to pay, and actually there should be more than this simple embassy move for all that was paid already.
Very neat job of side-stepping worthy of Santos Casini or Gower Champion. But he gave no indication of the “policy” that has not changed. In another comment he says that the US is not recognising the Golan annexation. So the “cuddly bear” has a bite.