Appearing as a guest on Monday's At This Hour with Kate Bolduan, CNN International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour predictably found the current right-leaning Israeli government to be "very far right" as she discussed the difficulty for President Donald Trump to successfully negotiate a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The CNN correspondent also failed to give any label to the Hamas terrorist group which rules the Gaza Strip as she vaguely informed viewers that the Palestinian Authority is "embroiled in a whole Hamas side of the equation."
At 11:20 a.m. ET, as Amanpour recalled that President Trump has boasted about being a "deal maker" and talked up the possibility of negotiating an agreement, she recounted some of the peace plan proposals that have been designed by the Bill Clinton administration and the government of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. She then added:
There are lots and lots of complications, not least the Palestinians which ware embroiled in a whole Hamas side of the equation. And the Israelis that are going further and further to the right. President -- sorry -- Bibi Netanyahu's government is a very far right government.
Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered to freeze construction within Israeli settlements if the Palestinian leadership drops its Right of Return demand and recognize Israel as a Jewish nation state, Amanpour argued that settlements are an obstacle to peace as she continued:
Its coalition allies are far right. Under -- since President Trump has been elected, the government in Israel has simply put more and more settlements into the occupied territories. That makes it more difficult.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of Amanpour's analysis from the Monday, May 22, At This Hour with Kate Bolduan on CNN:
11:20 a.m. ET
The real issue is, can he (President Donald Trump) deliver what he has said in public, to make the ultimate deal? He has gone to the Middle East, raising massive hopes that he will bring peace because he's the "deal maker" that no other President could do. Actually, you know, the actual parameters were laid down when Aaron (David Miller) was there helping President Clinton. And those are the parameters that still exist.
And, in fact, a previous Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, laid down his parameters and said that he would be willing to, you know, even share Jerusalem. There all the work has been done towards a peace process. The question is, can an American President get both the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian leader to make -- I'm afraid that hackneyed phrase -- the incredibly hard and difficult choices for peace and compromise. And as yet, it hasn't happened.
There are lots and lots of complications, not least the Palestinians which ware embroiled in a whole Hamas side of the equation. And the Israelis that are going further and further to the right. President -- sorry -- Bibi Netanyahu's government is a very far right government. Its coalition allies are far right. Under -- since President Trump has been elected, the government in Israel has simply put more and more settlements into the occupied territories. That makes it more difficult.
