Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump refused to take a side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, maintaining a ‘neutral’ approach when asked about it on Wednesday.
During a televised MSNBC town hall Wednesday night in Charleston, S.C., host Joe Scarborough asked the Republican presidential hopeful whether the ongoing conflict and bloodshed is the Israelis or Palestinians’ fault?
“Let me be sort of a neutral guy. I don’t want to say whose fault is it,” Trump replied. “You understand a lot of people have gone down in flames trying to make that deal. So I don’t want to say whose fault it is – I don’t think that helps.”
According to Trump, “If I do win, there has to be a certain amount of surprise, unpredictability, our country has no unpredictability. If I win, I don’t want to be in a position where the other side now says, ‘We don’t want Trump involved.’”
Trump was also asked what specific steps he would take to establish a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. “I will give it one hell of a shot,” he said. “It’s possible it’s not makeable, because don’t forget it has to last — it’s wonderful to make it and it doesn’t work, but it has to last. To make lasting peace there? Probably the toughest deal of all but I’m going to give it a shot.”
Trump revealed what a “very prominent Israeli” recently told him about the roots of the conflict. “I was with a very prominent Israeli the other day, [and he] said it’s impossible because the other side has been trained from the time they’re children to hate Jewish people.”
Commenting on Trump’s remarks, Aaron Keyak, co-founder of Bluelight Strategies, said he finds it fascinating that Trump “seems to be so reckless on every issue besides Israel.”
“On Israel, Trump appears to calculate his position,” Keyak told Jewish Insider. “This is a man who sees the world as black and white and only on Israel he sees some grey. For Trump to come to the table as neutral and not acknowledging Palestinian terror attack, it truly shocking. It seems that on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he actually believes in what he says.”
