oren liebermann for us. thanks. >>> president trump seems to have settled on a strategy for avoiding tough questions at the press briefings. he is refusing to call on reporters from the traditional media outlets. on wednesday, with the israeli prime minister, he called on reporters from the sympathetic news outlets. cnn reporters at the events tried to ask the president questions about the campaign ties to russia and only to be ignored. >> mr. president, are you going to answer any questions about your associate's contact with russia during the campaign? >> will you comment on the report with your senior adviser over suspected russian operatives during the campaign? >> this seems to have been the trend all week. on monday, standing by side the canadian prime minister, he called on outlets favorable to the white house. >> to an extent, it happened in the past. never like this. they have been calling on the ap and abc and whatnot. at a certain point, have to face the music. >> it could help the story go away i

we are joined by cnn's oren liebermann live in jerusalem. oren, the shift from the two-state to not necessarily the two-state. that is a big difference. >> reporter: it is a major break with decades of u.s. foreign policy. just as big a break with the international community which held the two-state solution as the only realistic and workable solution to the conflict. president trump essentially said two states. one state. long as they agree, i'm happy. prime minister netanyahu gave a different answer. he said he doesn't want to deal with labels. more in substance. for those answers, prime minister benjamin netanyahu's right wing government is celebrating. many said this is the end of the palestinian state. some are calling for a partial or complete annexation of the west bank. as for the line where trump said it would be good to halt construction to work on a peace deal. the government in israel i gnord that line. palestinian is seizing upon that. the palestinian president supports the two-state solution. it is upon the israeli prime minist

oren liebermann in jerusalem. thanks so much. >>> and the record rally for the stock market rolls on. investors enjoying four straight day, of all-time highs. even more impressive, the stock probably part of your 401(k). we're going to show you the big gains -- next. they release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. tylenol® >>> all right. u.s. defense secretary james mattis is in brussels this morning to meet with nato allies for the first time. topping the agenda, nato's strained relations with russia and fighting extremism. general mattis is also expected to discuss the resignation of michael flynn. cnn is live in brussels. a swirl of questions here in the united states, erin, that secretary mattis will not be able to avoid this. >> reporter: that's right, john. this is seen as one of the most important in recent years. officials really making great efforts to try and impress secretary mattis. in the words of one senior nato diplomat, they have sort of overprepared, kind of like, quote, a good school student.

we're going live to jerusalem to bring in cnn's oren liebermann. oren, that news came out of a briefing last night from white house officials. the language they used is that donald trump will no longer insist on the two-state solution, being the primary goal of mideast peace. >> and that's a very big break from decades of u.s. foreign policy which says a two-state solution, an israel state and palestinian state is the only option. that senior white house official saying the white house is open to any options that both sides agree to. the palestinians have made it clear there is no other option. they will only agree to a palestinian state next to an israeli state. what this shows, the white house policy remains unclear. it's not net been formally formulated. we've seen a change over the course of the election and the last few months. initially, president trump had promised to move the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. that is a promise he's backed away from. the administration saying still evaluating here. as well as settlement here. felt that pre

want to turn to oren liebermann in amona with more on this. before we get to the settlement expansion i want you to explain, oren, what is going on behind you there. as we know, an evacuation will take place from there. explain to us the details on this. >> reporter: rosemary, that evacuation looks like it's set to begin here in the next few hours. i'll take you down the hill behind me. we are at the entrance to the illegal outpost of amona. there are protesters here behind me. they're trying to block the road. so they started that fire there. as well as putting nails, rocks, and other items on the road to try to block the road from israeli security forces coming up here to evacuate the outpost of amona. but let's move down this road and you'll see where the security forces are positioned now. they have not yet come into amona. but they have blocked the road and the area. they're trying to keep others from getting in, other protesters. there are security forces as you see not only on the road but also in the hills and the fields around amona t

we have oren liebermann who joins us and fred pleitgen. oren, i wanted to start with you, i just said there, president trump will not insist, we're being told, on a two-state solution, which is an about-face from previous administrations. is this seen as a huge shift, or is this being interpreted where you are as a tactical and perhaps a temporary solution to help netanyahu at home? >> well, it's an about-face from some 50 years of u.s. foreign policy. but the assessment is that, it may be simply that president trump hasn't formulated his middle east policy. we've already seen him back off of some of his campaign pledges to move the embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. he's criticized settlements here many here believe he was pro-settlement, but has recently criticized them as being unhelpful to peace. so it seems his middle east policy hasn't been formulated yet, but it may be a political favor, a political gift to prime minister benjamin netanyahu, because he's under tremendous pressure from the right-wing to abandon a two-state solution.

. >> oren liebermann is our correspondent in jerusalem. oren, we heard the president say something that the prime minister presumably was not that excited about when he said to the prime minister, as far as israeli settlements on the west bank are concerned, hold back. i'd like to see israel hold back. he then went on to say i think we're going to make a deal but he was pretty precise in telling the prime minister he's not very enthusiastic about israel going ahead and building more settlements. >> reporter: especially after we saw the few announcements after the election by donald trump, more than 5,600 settlements approved by netanyahu. that prompted president trump to say settlement expansion is unhelpful to peace. so making it clear here, hold off on this a little bit. you're right, that's not what netanyahu wanted to hear. when he was asked about that, he said we'll come to some agreement. it will be interesting to see if they come to some agreement, perhaps one of the options floated by the defense minister here and is expansion and