Pompeo, in Israel, avoids talk of Mideast peace deal
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pays a visit to Israel this week, but it’s what he’s not doing while there that may be the most notable aspect of the trip.
Pompeo doesn’t plan to talk publicly about the “deal of the century” that President Donald Trump said he would offer to settle the Israel-Palestinian conflict, a plan so important that he delegated negotiations to his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
“Look, we desperately want a good solution,” Pompeo told reporters Tuesday before his plane landed in Kuwait City for the first stop of the trip. “Mr. Kushner’s working on the Middle East peace plan. There’ll be a right time when we will introduce bigger pieces of that.”
Pompeo’s Israel itinerary is characteristic of the administration’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has been largely private and without participation from the Palestinians.
The secretary won’t even meet with any Palestinian officials on this trip, something that would have been routine for any top U.S. diplomat in recent decades.
Pompeo’s mere presence in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just weeks before a national election may be symbolic of the administration’s political preference, but his main public message will be a familiar one: The U.S. has an unbreakable commitment to Israel’s security, no matter who’s in charge.
“I’m going to Israel because of the important relationship we have,” he said. “Leaders will change in both countries over time. That relationship matters no matter who the leaders are.”
He said he would spend a good deal of time speaking about the security challenges posed by the conflict in Syria ahead of a sharp reduction in the U.S. presence there, as well as about the longstanding threats Israel faces from Iran and the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Palestinians wouldn’t meet with Pompeo even if he wanted to see them. They have severed ties with the administration over it recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv and slashing hundreds of millions of dollars of aid.
“Political relations with the U.S. administration are broken unless it backs down from its decisions on Jerusalem and refugees and abides by international law,” said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh.
For now, the only apparent interaction between U.S. and Palestinian officialdom seems to be an increasingly frequent stream of tweets from international negotiations envoy Jason Greenblatt, taking issue with Palestinian positions and criticism, most of which he says is incorrect, relies on faulty hearsay or is otherwise intended to deceive.
“The message is that those who spread misinformation about the conflict or the plan are not going to get away with it anymore,” said Greenblatt, who is leading the talks with Kushner, in an interview last week. “If you lie or deceive to try to shape public opinion, we’re not going to let you do that without a response. We are in the midst of educating, and in some cases, re-educating people.”
Greenblatt brushed away criticism of the tweets from former would-be peacemakers and diplomats with experience in the region who say such engagement is undignified.