Trump pursues ‘ultimate deal’ in Israel
U.S. president has pitched few details on how to halt conflict between nation and Palestine
JERUSALEM— U.S. President Donald Trump has cast the pursuit of an elusive peace between Israelis and Palestinians as the “ultimate deal.” But he will step foot in Israel having offered few indications of how he plans to achieve what so many of his predecessors could not. Trump has handed son-in-law Jared Kushner and longtime business lawyer Jason Greenblatt the assignment of charting the course toward a peace process. The White House-driven effort is a sharp shift from the practice of previous U.S. administrations that typically gave secretaries of state those responsibilities.
Kushner and Greenblatt were to accompany Trump on his two-day visit, set to begin today and include separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Trump also planned to visit the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem and the Western Wall, an important Jewish holy site.
On the eve of Trump’s visit, Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved several confidence-building measures, including construction permits for Palestinians near their cities in parts of the West Bank that had previously been off limits, a senior official said. Under interim agreements, 60 per cent of the West Bank, known as Area C, site of Israel’s settlements, is under Israeli control and Palestinian development there has mostly been forbidden.
Speaking on condition of anonymity in line with protocol, he said the package also includes economic concessions and opening the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.
White House aides have played down expectations for significant progress on the peace process during Trump’s stop, casting it as more symbolic than substantive. Yet Trump may still need to engage in some delicate diplomacy following revelations that he disclosed highly classified intelligence Israel obtained about Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, with top Russian officials without Israel’s permission.
Israel also has expressed concern about the $110-billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia that Trump announced Saturday in Riyadh. Yuval Steinitz, a senior cabinet minister and Neta- nyahu confidant, called Saudi Arabia “a hostile country” and said the deal was “definitely something that should trouble us.”
Trump’s first overseas trip as president comes as the dynamics between the U.S. and the region’s players are moving in unexpected directions.
While Israeli officials cheered Trump’s election, some are now wary of the tougher line he has taken on settlements: urging restraint but not calling for a full halt to construction. Trump has retreated from a campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, bending to the same diplomatic and security concerns as other presidents who have made similar promises.
The Israeli public was very excited when Trump took office. They anticipated a fresh start after a fraught relationship with Barack Obama, who many thought was overly sympathetic to the Palestinians.
But reality has set in as all Trump’s earlier talk — of moving the embassy, of not worrying about Jewish settlements in Arab land and of dropping insistence on the two-state solution — appears to have been just that: talk.
“He’s like any politician,” said Shlamit Lev-ran, an art student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “They say one thing and then after they’re elected they do another. I see no difference.”
“Trump and Obama, they want the same thing,” said Elie Adler, a shopkeeper in downtown Jerusalem. “They just serve it up in a different dish.”
Adler said he doesn’t think Trump and his dealmaker reputation will be any more effective than Obama was in bringing a resolution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian standoff. For one thing, Western logic simply won’t change the minds of very religious people.
Israeli officials say they are largely in the dark about what ideas Trump might present for peace or what concessions he may demand.
Hardliners who dominate Netanyahu’s government grew particularly concerned when White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster voiced support last week for Palestinian “self-determination.”
Trump’s trip began in Saudi Arabia and takes him, after Israel, to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis. With files from Tribune News Service