(JTA) — Saying he’d “never met a person from Israel that didn’t want to make that deal,” Donald Trump said if elected president he plans to try to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.
“I am going to try and make that deal just because — man, would that be a beauty – if you like deals. I like deals,” the Republican presidential front-runner said at a rally Sunday in Terre Haute ahead of the Indiana primary on Tuesday, according to Jewish Insider.
“A lot of my Jewish friends say, ‘You will never be able to make the deal’ because there are so many years of hatred, especially on the other side,” Trump added. “You know, they [the Palestinians] grow up as young children hating, hating, hating Israel. I think the deal can be made. But we got to be smart, and we got to use our best people; gotta use me, but you got to use our best people. And I know the best people.”
In the speech, Trump also said the United States should use its clout as a major funder to demand that the United Nations do more to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump’s first foreign policy speech last week did not mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict other than criticizing President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for being too critical of the Jewish state.
