The Trump administration, which has remained tight-lipped about its vision for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, signalled on Friday that the Western Wall should be part of Israel under any peace deal.
“We can’t envision a scenario under which the Western Wall would not be part of Israel,” said a senior administration official, speaking on a call with reporters alongside four other senior administration officials. “But as the President said, the specific boundaries of sovereignty of Israel are going to be part of the final status agreement.”
The White House later sought to clarify the comments, with a senior administration official writing: “We note that we cannot imagine Israel would sign a peace agreement that didn’t include the Western Wall.”
The comments, which come just over a week after US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, drawing outrage in the Arab and Muslim world, offered a peek into the administration’s closely held crafting of a peace agreement the administration hopes Israelis and Palestinians will accept.
The senior administration official’s comments signalled that the Trump administration is not considering the possibility of placing Jerusalem or at least the Old City — of which the Western Wall is a part — under international control, an idea first proposed at the United Nations many decades ago, before the founding of Israel. The comments also made clear that the Trump administration believes it is unrealistic to imagine a future Israeli state that does not control one of the holiest sites in Judaism.
