Trump pushes for peace
Common-cause partnerships called key to Mideast peace
President Donald Trump on Monday touches the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the first time a sitting U.S. leader has visited the Jewish holy site. Trump opened a two-day visit by calling for Israel to end its standoff with the Palestinians and make peace with its Arab neighbors.
JERUSALEM — President Donald Trump began a twoday visit to Israel on Monday by conveying to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if Israel wants peace with its Arab neighbors, the generations-old standoff with the Palestinians must be resolved.
For years, Netanyahu has sought to recalibrate relations with Sunni Arab nations in a mutual bid to counter Shiite-led Iran, while subordinating the Palestinian dispute as a secondary issue. But as Trump arrived in Jerusalem after meetings in Saudi Arabia, the president indicated that he and those Arab states see an agreement with the Palestinians as integral to that new regional alignment.
“On those issues, there is a strong consensus among the nations of the world — including many in the Muslim world,” Trump said. “I was deeply encouraged by my conversations with Muslim world leaders in Saudi Arabia, including King Salman, who I spoke to at great length. King Salman feels very strongly and, I can tell you, would love to see peace with Israel and the Palestinians.”
Trump added that line to the remarks prepared for him, in effect tying the future of the anti-Iran coalition to the Palestinian issue despite Netanyahu’s longtime efforts to separate the two.
“There is a growing realization among your Arab neighbors that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by Iran, and it is indeed a threat, there’s no question about that,” Trump said.
Netanyahu said that “common dangers are turning former enemies into partners” and that “for the first time in my lifetime I see a real hope for change.”
But neither leader publicly cited any concrete steps in pursuing a peace agreement. Trump did not formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, as some Israeli officials hoped he would do, since he had already shelved his promise to move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv. Nor, for that matter, did he publicly press Israel to curb settlement construction in the West Bank, as Palestinians had hoped.
Netanyahu offered a few modest gestures such as extending the hours at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, recycled from previous moments in the long-running dispute with the Palestinians.
Netanyahu said he saw the possibility of an accommodation with Arab neighbors but did not tie it to the Palestinian dispute. Trump sounded hopeful that the nations would achieve such an agreement.
“I’ve heard it’s one of the toughest deals of all, but I have a feeling that we’re going to get there eventually, I hope,” Trump said.
Trump on Monday also offered a new defense of his disclosure of classified information to Russian diplomats in a recent Oval Office meeting. Standing alongside Netanyahu, he argued that he never mentioned Israel, which various officials said wasthe source of the classified intelligence — something he has not been accused of doing.
“I never mentioned the word or the name Israel,” he told reporters. “So you have another story wrong.”
Netanyahu played down the incident, saying U.S.-Israeli intelligence cooperation is “terrific” while dismissing concerns that a confidentiality agreement had been violated. But it served as another reminder for the president of his troubles at home, including the investigation of his ties to Russia and his firing of FBI Director James Comey.
The moment was an
abrupt interruption of an otherwise warm and smooth welcome for Trump to the Holy Land.
Trump arrived in Israel on what was believed to be the first open, direct flight to Israel from Saudi Arabia, countries that do not have diplomatic relations.
After meeting with Reuven Rivlin, who holds the largely ceremonial position of president of Israel, the president toured the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, home of what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus Christ.
He then became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Western Wall, the remnant of Herod the Great’s Second Jewish Temple that is the holiest place Jews are allowed to pray. Israeli security forces, including the police, army and Air Force, cleared the white-cobblestoned plaza in front of the wall hours before Trump arrived as helicopters buzzed above the Old City.
Shops in the Jewish quarter posted signs in their glass storefronts with a picture of the Wall, an Israeli flag and the words: “President Trump, Welcome to Jerusalem, Israel’s Eternal Capital. ” A large white tent was erected on the plaza facing the Western Wall to receive Trump’s limousine and obscure his path to the shrine where it’s traditional for visitors to slip a note into large cracks in the stone wall with prayers and wishes for God.
Both Trump and his wife, Melania, inserted notes into the wall.
Trump said with Netanyahu that he was “deeply moved” by his visit to the site. “It will leave an impression on me forever.”
The visit raised questions about whether the U.S. would indicate the site is Israeli territory. The U.S. has never recognized Israeli sovereignty over parts of the Old City seized in the 1967 war.
The White House struggled to answer the question. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley declared the site part of Israel, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday dodged.
“The wall is part of Jerusalem,” he said, declaring only an undeniable fact accepted by all sides.
Today, Trump is to travel to Bethlehem, in the West Bank, to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. Trump is then scheduled to return to Jerusalem to lay a wreath at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance center, and to deliver a speech at the Israel Museum.
More than 10,000 police officers, border police, special patrol units and undercover units have been deployed across Israel to secure the visit, closing major highways and disrupting daily life.
Mauricio Guerra, a Mexican tourist, was shocked to find he and his family wouldn’t be able to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed to be the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial, because of Trump.
“This guy makes trouble for Mexico with the wall and I can’t even escape him in the Holy Land,” said Guerra, 50, of Monterrey.