Trump: big dreams, no substance
DONALD TRUMP left Israel on Tuesday afternoon after 28 hours of pro-Israel speeches, fighting talk on terror, out-loud dreaming about peace — but very little of actual substance.
In his concluding speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, he promised his listeners that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas want to make peace, but did not supply any details of how that may be achieved.
The Palestinians will have been disappointed that at no point during his visit — not even during his short stop in Bethlehem to meet Mr Abbas — did he publicly raise the idea of a Palestinian state or Israel’s 50-year-old occupation of the West Bank.
The Israeli government was very pleased with Mr Trump’s many gestures of support and his promises to join them and the Sunni Arab states in their struggle against Islamist terror and Iran. However, he made no sign of changing the American policy on not recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital or fulfilling his campaign promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Even during his visit to the Western Wall on Monday afternoon, no Israeli officials — except the “Kotel Rabbi” —were allowed to accompany him. That does not mean
the visit was without real purpose. By the time he landed in Israel, he had already accomplished what may well be the two main achievements.
He is now the first US President to have visited Israel in the first foreign trip of his administration, and the Air Force One Boeing 747 which carried him from Riyadh is the first aircraft to have openly flown from Saudi Arabia to Israel (George W Bush made that flight in the opposite direction in 2008).
The timing of Mr Trump’s tour underlines the fact that so far he only has one clear foreign policy objective — pivoting away from the Obama administration’s attempt to engage with Iran and to create a regional balance of power between the Sunni and Shia states.
The speeches made by both Mr Trump and Saudi King Salman focused on uniting the Arab world against two enemies — jihadist terrorism and Iran. Upon arriving in Israel, the president took up where he had left off in Riyadh, attacking Iran both in his opening greeting and his farewell at President Reuven Rivlin’s residence in Jerusalem.
There was a clear theme to Mr Trump’s visits to Israel and the Saudi kingdom. He stuck to what he knew his hosts wanted to hear and steered away from any controversial topic — such as human rights in Saudi Arabia and the tough decisions Israel will have to make to go forward in any diplomatic process with the Palestinians.
He mentioned his “dream” of peace, extolling what he called his “commitment” towards making it happen. But, at least in public, he gave no details and put no pressure on Israel to make this happen.
Not that Mr Trump said everything his Israeli hosts wanted to hear.
President Rivlin and a number of Israeli ministers who greeted him on the tarmac requested that America recognise Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem and that Mr Trump fulfil his campaign commitment to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv. The president smiled and changed the subject.
Mr Trump had obviously been briefed by his advisers, and probably the Saudis, to keep well away from the hot potato of Israel’s contested capital.
But there was still much that was music to the ears of Mr Netanyahu and other Israelis.
Standing by President Abbas in Bethlehem, Mr Trump said that “peace can never take root in an environment where violence is tolerated, funded and even rewarded,” a refer- ence to the stipends the PA pays to the families of Palestinian terrorists in prison.
“We must build a coalition of partners who share the aim of stamping out extremism and violence,” he said in his speech at the Israel Museum.
On the peace process, he said that “we know that peace is possible if we put aside the pain and disagreements of the past and commit together to finally resolving this crisis which has dragged on for nearly half a century”.
Leaks from the Trump White House and his talks in Israel indicate that while the president is still eager to pursue his “ultimate deal”, he departed the Middle East without leaving any concrete diplomatic plans. The Palestinian leadership was warned in advance not to expect any announcements on a settlements freeze, and a modest package of economic incentives to the PA approved on the eve of the visit by the Israeli cabinet mainly includes items that were already agreed in the past.
Neither is there the prospect of an immediate breakthrough in IsraeliSaudi relations.