Trump: I’ll be ‘neutral’ on Israel and Palestine

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GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to pick sides in the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

“You know, I don’t want to get into it,” he told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski during a MSNBC town hall in Charleston, S.C.

{mosads}“If I win, I don’t want to be in a position where I’m saying to you [my choice] and the other side now says, ‘We don’t want Trump involved,'” the real estyate mogul said of potentially winning the presidency and then brokering a lasting peace deal.

“Let me be sort of a neutral guy,” the billionaire added. “I have friends of mine that are tremendous businesspeople, that are really great negotiators, [and] they say it’s not doable.

“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.”

Trump said he would seek harmony in the Middle East as commander in chief no matter the difficulty.

“That’s probably the toughest deal in the world right now to make,” he said. “It’s possible it’s not makeable because, don’t forget, it has to last.

“A lot of people say an agreement can’t be made, which is OK, sometimes agreements can’t be made [and they are] not good. I will give it one hell of a shot. I would say if you can do that deal, you can do any deal.”

Trump added that the biggest obstacle between Israel and Palestine making amends is the cycle of hatred between both factions.

“You have one side in particular growing up and learning that ‘these are the worst people, these are the worst people, etc., etc.,” he said. “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. I’m going to give it a shot.” 

Tags conflict Diplomacy Donald Trump Foreign policy Israel Palestine Peace

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