In Israel, Trump urges Middle East “harmony”
Trump has not stated position on Palestinian state, Jerusalem capital
jerusalem» President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sketched the broad outlines of a new architecture for the Middle East here late Monday, declaring common cause among the United States, Israel and Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia to roll back Iranian aggression and defeat Islamist terrorism.
Their joint cooperation could “create conditions for realistic peace” in the region, a beaming Netanyahu said as he praised Trump for what he called a changed U.S. policy toward Iran. In their talks earlier in the day, he said, Trump had “noted so succinctly that common dangers are turning former enemies into partners.”
Trump, who arrived here Monday after two days in the Saudi capital, where he spoke of his ambitions to dozens of Muslim leaders, predicted that “many, many things that can happen now that would never been able to happen before.”
Sweeping in its promise, Trump’s approach is the latest iteration of his dealmaking style: Set an audacious target, but instead of charting a step-by-step roadmap, rely on what he sees as his negotiating skill and power of personal persuasion to achieve it eventually.
In this case, it is likely to take years to see if those personal relationships are enough to untangle decades of suspicion and competing objectives in the region.
For now, Trump’s approach is strikingly short of details. On the eve of his visit to Bethlehem on Tuesday to meet with Pales-
tinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the nearby West Bank city of Bethlehem, he referred only vaguely to “a renewed effort at peace” between the Palestinians and Israel.
“I’ve heard it’s one of the toughest deals in the world,” Trump said of the peace process. “But I’m sure we’re going to get there eventually.” The two leaders, speaking for the television cameras but taking no questions, then posed for photographs with their wives before the foursome retired for a private dinner.
In a symbolic move earlier in the day, Trump visited the Western Wall in East Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, spending a moment of silence before following tradition and slipping a private note between the stones.
Netanyahu made no mention of the Palestinians in his Monday evening remarks with Trump. He began by welcoming the president to “the eternal capital of the Jewish people, the united capital of the Jewish state.” Both descriptions are completely rejected by the Arab world, including the Saudis, who back Palestinian demands for a Palestinian capital in this city and a two-state solution that would remove Israeli settlers from most of the West Bank territory they currently occupy.
While a Palestinian peace deal is an obvious precursor for closer Arab-Israeli cooperation, Trump has not stated a firm positions on the bedrock Arab demands of a Palestinian state and a Palestinian capital in Jerusalem, although he has gently urged Israel to slow down settlement construction in the West Bank.
Working in Trump’s favor is the strained relations between Netanyahu and Arab leaders with former President Barack Obama at the end of his administration. Obama discomfited many in the region by signing a nuclear agreement with Iran, while holding the Israelis to account for failing to recognize Palestinian rights and the Arabs for civil and human rights abuses in their own countries.
In the second of their three public appearances during the day, Trump and Netanyahu joined to condemn Islamist terrorism and Iran. “We not only gave them a lifeline, we gave them wealth and prosperity,” Trump said of Obama’s Iran nuclear agreement, “and we also gave them the ability to continue with terror.”
Netanyahu welcomed Trump to Ben Gurion International Airport at midday Monday, fresh from quarrels within his coalition government over how much Israel is prepared to compromise for peace and wary of the bilateral deals the U.S. president struck during the weekend with Saudi Arabia and other Arab leaders in Riyadh.
A $110 billion U.S. arms deal with the Saudis and Trump’s eagerness to lock the Arabs and Israelis in a reciprocal counterterrorism embrace set off alarms, although the administration has insisted it will continue to honor the U.S. commitment to Israeli military superiority in the region.
Trump’s failure so far to fulfill his promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is also a source of anxiety.
But Netanyahu has clearly decided to buy in to whatever deal Trump is trying to arrange, at least for now. He was effusive in his praise of the president at every opportunity, stressing the new-found camaraderie of their wives, Melania and Sara, who talked trash about the unfair media and talked about “the people” who loved their husbands in a shared moment on the arrival tarmac caught by an open mike. The two leaders called each other Donald and Bibi, Netanyahu’s nickname.
Netanyahu has warned hard-line ministers in his coalition government that Trump is a president who needs to be handled carefully.
He repeatedly cautioned them not to push Trump into a corner with bold ultimatums, saying that the new American leader is a natural friend but the relationship with the White House should be deftly managed.
He wants Trump to apply as much pressure as possible on Iran. He also wants as much leverage as possible to keep his right wing at his side, and so does not want Trump to press him publicly — not too much, at least — about the expansion of Jewish settlements.