Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he’ll give solving the conflict between Israel and Palestine “one hell of a shot.”
During an MSNBC town hall, the Republican presidential candidate said that he had some doubt that he could settle the complex, decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
But he said that he wouldn’t hesitate to forge a deal between the two sides if it could be done.
“It is a very, very tough agreement to make,” Trump told “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who were moderating the town hall.
“But I will give it one hell of a shot. That I can tell you. But of all agreements — I would say if you can do that deal, you can do any deal. That’s probably the toughest deal in the world right now to make and it’s possible it’s not make-able,” he continued.
When asked which side was to blame, Trump said that he wouldn’t reveal his thoughts on the matter in order to maintain the element of “surprise” in the potential future negotiations.
He said:
I don’t want to get into it for a different reason, Joe. Because 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.” … Let me be sort of a neutral guy.
Though he wouldn’t reveal his biases, Trump reiterated what a “very prominent Israeli” told him about the roots of the conflict.
“I was with a very prominent Israeli the other day, said it’s impossible because the other side has been trained from the time they’re children to hate Jewish people,” Trump said earlier at the town-hall event.
Trump hasn’t emphasized his close ties with Israel as frequently as some of the other Republican candidates, but he has occasionally touted his pro-Israel agenda.
Last year, Trump told an audience in Washington, DC, that Israel “hasn’t been given a lot of credit” for attempting to negotiate with Palestine. Trump also planned a trip to Israel in December to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but subsequently canceled it.
As reported by Business Insider