Trump: U.S. Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's Capital; Israel & Palestinian Reaction to Trump Announcement
AARON DAVID MILLER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: -- just because the president acknowledged and obviously, someone who had some measure of experience decided to put that tiny hook in there and to create the notion that now, for the first time, the administration has endorsed a two-state solution, assuming both sides accepted. But I think it's going to make a long shot even longer.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You can tell that this speech was kind of pieced together around the Trump decision, I want to do this, and there was disagreement. And Elise has reported on this, there was disagreement inside the administration. So that the statement that Christiane and you were talking about before, we're not taking a position on any of the final status issues had to be sewn into this in order to soften what was a very clear statement by the president.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hold on one minute. We have -- Ambassador Dennis Ross is with us, as well. He worked to try to bring an Israeli/Palestinian agreement over many years when he served in the U.S. government. Dennis, let me get your reaction to what the president just said. I understand you believe that there could be some potential, some strategic vision that the president has to advance the peace process with what he just said.</s>DENNIS ROSS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR & FORMER MIDDLE EAST ENVOY: Well, I agree that we haven't heard what that strategic vision is. We didn't hear new ideas from that standpoint. But I wouldn't undersell the significance of saying that nothing has been prejudged. There is not, in fact, any effort here to say this is what Jerusalem is now going to look like. In effect, what he's saying is I'm recognizing what is a fact. Now, I also recognize that if we are going to have peace, we're going to have to deal with the needs of other sides as well. Aaron is right that he didn't spell out what the needs or the claims of the other side were. But by the same token, he's empathizing he's not recognizing a particular part of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. He's in effect saying the boundaries of Jerusalem, what the sovereignty will be, where it will be, Palestinian claims, all that has to be negotiated. So I wouldn't understate that. I would note that it does put him in a kind of interesting position vis-a-vis the Israelis. He's now done something that every Israeli prime minister would have liked to have seen. It puts him in a position where with the Israeli public, he's crossed a threshold. He does have the capacity, with the plan that at some point is going to be presented, he does have the capacity to be asking something of Israel that will won't be so easy for Israel. He's created a political context in Israel that will obviously give him some leverage. The key question is going to be, can he repeat and can those in his administration repeat in the coming days and in the coming weeks the point that the Palestinians and the Arab needs will have to be addressed in there's going to be an agreement. That will be critical if he's going to manage their response.</s>BLITZER: So we may be giving -- you may be giving the president too much credit. But what I hear you saying is that if there is going to be a new two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, a new state of Palestine living alongside Israel, Israel is going to have make some very painful concessions. By what the president has just done, he's gone above the head perhaps of the Israeli prime minister, of the Israeli government, and told the Israeli public I'm with you, I support you. And go ahead, and make those kinds of painful concessions, territorial concessions to the Palestinians. Is that what I'm hearing you suggest that that may be may have been one of the president's goals right now?</s>ROSS: Whether it was by design or not, ha is the result. Every American president has increasing capacity to ask Israelis to do something that's difficult for them when the Israeli public believes that that American president gets Israel's predicament and basically is on Israel's side. Well, this president has just done something that creates that reality.</s>BLITZER: Aaron Miller, what do you think?</s>MILLER: Dennis makes a fair point.</s>BLITZER: You worked closely with Aaron Miller over many years at the State Department.</s>MILLER: Dennis and I have spent most of the last 10 years arguing about this issue or that, with respect to Israeli peace. Dennis makes a fair point. If this is the honey as a prelude to the vinegar during an actual negotiation, in other words, if the president, the ultimate transactional man, really thinks that this is the way to create a situation where no one will now be able to say about Donald Trump that he is the most pro-Israeli president since Harry Truman, well then, he is in a position to apply ample amounts of vinegar along with the honey during the course of an actual negotiation. But I'm telling you, Wolf, that's straining the bounds of credulity to the breaking point because that would require a degree of pressure and awkwardness and tension with the government of Israel and all of the president's constituencies for whom he did this.</s>MILLER: I'm not entirely persuaded that you're going to see that kind of follow through.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: One of the other conversations during the transition between Trump administration officials and allies, including Russia, was regarding the Obama administration's U.N. Security Council vote criticizing Israel for settlement building that the U.S. abstained from, in a remarkable move, making that a unanimous decision. So at that time, you know, even before Trump took office, right, there was an effort there to say that we're going to have a different approach to this issue. So the question is, if the vinegar was going to be -- I mean, the obvious vinegar would be pressure on settlements. Would it not be?</s>MILLER: Or on borders.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes, or on borders. But since then, the settlement building has continued and there was pushback against that resolution.</s>SCIUTTO: Where is the vinegar, is the question.</s>ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He needs to make clear to the Israelis that don't create a so-called reality on the ground as we like to say in the Middle East. He made that distinction not in name but in suggestion that possibly part of east Jerusalem or part of Jerusalem would belong to a future Palestinian state as their capital. But you know, we've seen that when you give the Israelis the kind of hand to do what they want, they feel as if they have a green light. Are they going to continue to build in East Jerusalem? You know, these kinds of things were not spelled out. You also need to look at how this affects U.S. relationships in the region. President Trump had five calls with Arab leaders yesterday. They all told him this was a bad idea. The president of France didn't agree. And half of his cabinet, his national security team, Director Pompeo, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Mattis said we have to think of the wider security in the region for the U.S., how this is going to affect our partners on ISIS, on Syria. I think that what is really missing here, as we've been saying, is this kind of regional strategy. Jared Kushner is trying to get this kind of jigsaw puzzle where the Saudis are working together with Israel on Iran. That part of it seems to be working pretty well, I think. There have been some quiet conversations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. But what about the gulf? They're not going to be happy about this.</s>BLITZER: I want to get reaction from the Israelis and from the Palestinians. We have reporters in Jerusalem and Ramallah on the West Bank. Let's go to Nic Robertson in Jerusalem first. Nic, I understand the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reacting to what the president just said?</s>NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, he's thanked President Trump for a courageous statement. He goes on to say, you know, the president's decision is an important step towards peace for there is no peace that doesn't include Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel. But in one area, he echoes very clearly on a very important issue for everyone concerned here what President Trump said about the -- about Jerusalem being a holy place for three faiths. He said, I want to make clear -- this is what prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "I want to make clear there will be no change whatsoever to the status quo of the holy sites." Exactly what President Trump said. "The Jewish people and the Jewish state will be forever grateful. This has been our goal from veil's first day. Israel will ensure the freedom of worship for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. President Trump, thank you for today's historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital." Very clear the sentiment from the Israeli prime minister there. But echoing what is a major international concern that the announcement by President Trump could alter the dynamic in Jerusalem and, therefore, cause the potential for violence and for trouble. By no means have we seen the full panoply of reaction. This is the reaction of the prime minister of Israel at this time -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: I'm sure we'll get a lot more reaction. We'll get reaction from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah as well. I want to go -- Ian Lee is on the scene there. I want to go to him shortly. But listen to what the president said right at the end of his 11- minute address.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let us rethink old assumptions and open our hearts and minds to possible and possibilities. And finally, I ask the leaders of the region, political and religious, Israeli and Palestinian, Jewish and Christian and Muslim, to join us in the noble quest for lasting peace. Thank you. God bless you. God bless Israel. God bless the Palestinians. And God bless the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Jim Sciutto, I know you wanted to react to what we just heard.</s>SCIUTTO: The words, there was something noticeable -- I don't know if others did -- about the way he was speaking there. It was a long statement. Possibility that he needed water. But there was something strange about the way the words were coming out of his mouth towards the end of those comments.</s>MILLER: He was very distinctive, I thought, towards the end. Slurring almost.</s>LABOTT: A little out of breath. A little out of breath. I wouldn't ascribe anything in particular to it. Maybe he isn't feeling well today.</s>BLITZER: We're standing by for Palestinian reaction. We'll go to Ian Lee, our correspondent in Ramallah on the West Bank. There's a lot of reaction pouring in right now. Allies are warning they fear there could be violence after this presidential announcement. Stand by. There's also other news we're following here in Washington, breaking news from Capitol Hill. Several female Democratic Senators are now calling on their Democratic colleague, Al Franken, to resign over the sexual harassment allegations against him. And the calls are growing. Also breaking, the wildfires right in the heart of Los Angeles spreading and forcing -- you're looking at live pictures right now. More and more evacuations, including parts of Bel Air. CNN has special live coverage of that. Stay with us.