Israel should keep building settlements in the West Bank, Republican front-runner Donald Trump said on Tuesday, linking construction to the continued rocket threat that Israel faces from the Gaza Strip and which has seen it drawn into three wars against Hamas-run Gaza in recent years.
In an interview with the British Daily Mail on Tuesday, Trump said there should be no pause in settlement construction, a position at odds with that of the Obama administration, which in 2009 encouraged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to implement a freeze new construction for 10 months in an effort restart stalled peace talks with the Palestinians. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refused to negotiate until the very end of the freeze, which Netanyahu then refused to extend.
Asked if there should be a pause in settlement building, Trump was quoted answering as follows:
“No, I don’t think it is, because I think Israel should have – they really have to keep going. They have to keep moving forward… I don’t think there should be a pause… Look: Missiles were launched into Israel, and Israel, I think, never was properly treated by our country. I mean, do you know what that is, how devastating that is?”
“You have hundreds and, I guess, thousands of missiles being launched into Israel, who would put up with that? Who would stand for it?” he added.
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Originally Posted by undergroundrr
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