Hosting Palestinian leader, Trump vows Middle East peace
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump plunged into the other side of Middle East peacemaking on Wednesday as he met for the first time with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, and committed himself to pulling off “the toughest deal” in the world.
Hosting Abbas at the White House, Trump said he would do “whatever is necessary” to bring together the Palestinians and Israelis, who have been warring over the same small patch of land for generations. But he gave no sense of how he would achieve such a goal or exactly what an agreement might look like.
“We want to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Trump said. “We will get it done. We will be working so hard to get it done. It’s been a long time.”
Turning to Abbas, the president added, “I think there’s a very, very good chance, and I think you feel the same way.”
Abbas, 82, who was among the negotiators on hand for the historic signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn in 1993, indicated he did feel optimistic that nearly a quarter-century later Trump might be the president who finally builds on that initial agreement to forge a final resolution to the conflict.
Praising Trump’s “courageous leadership,” “wisdom” and “great negotiating ability,” Abbas said, “We believe that we can be partners with you to bring about a historic peace.”
Abbas implored Trump to understand the Palestinian perspective. “It’s time for Israel to end its occupation of our people and of our land,” he said. “After 50 years, we are the only remaining people in the world who still live under occupation. We are aspiring and want to achieve our freedom and our dignity and our right to self-determination.”
But the scale of that challenge was quickly made clear as Abbas repeated the conditions Palestinians have insisted on for years — the creation of an independent Palestinian state based on the borders that existed before the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital; the right of return for refugees; and freedom for prisoners in Israeli cells. As a package, that formulation has been a nonstarter for Israel, which itself has shown no sign since Trump took office of backing off any of its own longstanding fixed positions.
Trump has made clear that the details do not matter much to him, and he has abandoned the longtime U.S. commitment to the so-called two-state solution. Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in February, Trump said he would be fine with a two-state or a onestate solution as long as the two sides were satisfied.