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Trump Administration peace initiative to “heavily focus” on Israeli security

One of the two U.S. officials in charge of formulating President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, Envoy Jason Greenblatt, emphasized that the forthcoming peace proposal will include a resolution to all core issues, including the “refugee issue” and will also “heavily focus on Israeli security needs.” In an interview Trump’s Mideast envoy gave to the Times of Israel, he underscored that the Trump Administration has “tried hard to find a good balance,” that will be “fair” to both the Israelis and Palestinians. Greenblatt further stressed that “each side will find things in this plan that they don’t like… (as) there are no perfect solutions.” In response to the comments by the President’s Middle East envoy, a Washington-based reporter asked U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert, whether the statement by Jason Greenblatt, in which he revealed the outline of the U.S. peace deal would “heavily focus on Israeli security needs” indicated a withdrawal from Washington’s commitment to a two-state solution. In response to TV7’s request for comment, a senior Israeli official warned that “an establishment of a Palestinian state would indeed pose a significant security threat to the state of Israel.” The senior political official, who demanded to remain anonymous, pointed to the reality in the Gaza Strip. He stressed that Jerusalem attempted to appease the international community by dis-engaging from the enclave, which at the time was under the control of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. While the Palestinian leadership claimed, together with Western powers, that the reality would improve after Israel disengaged, “history clearly showed us that international assurances cannot be trusted in the Middle East.” “Instead of safeguarding Israel’s national security interests, a terror organization forcibly ousted the Palestinian Authority and brought about a storm of rockets and mortar shells on Israeli civilian communities.” That is why, the official concluded, “the inception of a state for the Palestinians would only predict dangerous security challenges that will pose existential threats to the only Jewish state around the world.”