Donald Trump has indicated he does not believe Israeli settlement growth in Palestinian territories is “good for peace” in what appears to be a sharp reversal of comments made by the White House only a week ago.
Sowing further confusion over his often chaotic and contradictory foreign policy pronouncements – both during the campaign for president and since his inauguration – the US president took the unusual step of making the remarks to a rightwing Israeli freesheet paper owned by the billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who donated $20m (£16m) to Trump’s campaign.
The paper – Israel Hayom – is regarded as a mouthpiece for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The interview was published days before Netanyahu is due to visit the White House.
In the interview, published in Hebrew and with no English transcript made immediately available, Trump was also reported as as saying he was still thinking “seriously” about moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a move fiercely opposed by the Palestinians, although he believes it may not be easy.
The paper also quoted Trump as calling on Israel to act “reasonably” over the peace process and, citing the limited land available, as saying: “I’m not someone who believes that advancing settlements is good for peace.”
The apparent U-turn followed an equally dramatic reversal in Trump’s position on China, after a phone call with its president, Xi Jinping, in which Trump said he would not challenge Beijing by upending longstanding US policy towards Taiwan.
Taken at face value, Trump’s comments would appear to be a blow to Israel’s right, which had been pushing Netanyahu to double down on a recent surge of pro-settlement moves, including the approval of 6,000 new housing units and a highly controversial legalisation bill aimed at regularising illegal outposts on the West Bank.
It was unclear, given the Trump administration’s contradictory statements on the issue, how seriously the comments could be taken, not least because they appeared at odds with a White House statement last week suggesting the administration did not see settlements “as an impediment to peace”.
“I want Israel to behave properly in the peace process,” translations of Trump’s words reported him saying. “I’m sure it will finally happen after so many years. And maybe there will be a bigger peace deal than just Israel and the Palestinians. I want both sides to acts reasonably and I think I have a good chance at that,” Trump said.
“There is limited land left, and every time you take land for settlements, there’s less land left. I’m not someone who believes that advancing the settlements is good for peace. But we’re checking all the possibilities.”
The president made clear he did not want to publicly criticise Israel: “I don’t want to condemn Israel. Israel has a long history of condemnations and challenges. I don’t want to condemn Israel during my administration.
“I understand Israel very well and respect it very much. Israelis have gone through very difficult periods. I want peace between Israelis and Palestinians and even more than that. I think peace for Israel would be great for Israel, not just good.”
