France and Saudi Arabia hope to use this year's United Nations General Assembly and the increasingly horrific war in the Gaza Strip to inject new urgency into the quest for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Those efforts include a new road map for eventual Palestinian statehood in territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war, and moves by several Western countries to join a global majority in recognizing such a state before it has been established. They face major obstacles, however, beginning with vehement opposition from the United States and Israel.
President Donald Trump says Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for U.S. "ownership" of the war-torn territory. That contradicts other officials in his administration who have sought to argue Trump was only calling for the temporary relocation of its population. Less than a week after he floated his plan for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and turn it into "the Riviera of the Middle East," Trump said "No, they wouldn't" when asked if Palestinians in Gaza would have a right to return to the territory. Trump made his comments in an interview with FOX News that was set to air on Monday.
Hamas is still putting up a fight after seven brutal months of war with Israel, regrouping in some of the hardest-hit areas in northern Gaza and resuming rocket attacks into nearby Israeli communities. Israel initially made tactical advances against Hamas after a devastating aerial bombardment paved the way for its ground troops. But those early gains have given way to a grinding struggle against an adaptable insurgency — and a growing feeling among many Israelis that their military faces only bad options, drawing comparisons with U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The other two members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's three-man War Cabinet are demanding that he come up with detailed postwar plans.
