With hopes for peace uncertain, Trump to visit Israel

Security was extremely tight for the Israeli leg of the visit, with police deploying some 10,000 officers. Netanyahu said he hoped an Israeli prime minister could soon make the same flight. “It’s part of the West Bank“. After years of butting heads with Trump’s predecessor, Netanyahu celebrated a new American president’s arrival as a moment of hope in the stalled peace talks between Israel and Palestinians.

But the remark about the Western Wall’s location outraged Israelis.

“May your first trip to our region prove to be a historic milestone on the path toward reconciliation and peace”, Netanyahu said.

After Israel, Trump’s marathon maiden foreign trip will take him to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Francis, to Brussels for a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit and to Sicily for a meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven major industrial nations.

Trump spoke from Bethlehem in the West Bank, the morning after a blast that killed more than 20 people at an Ariana Grande concert. Jewish worshipers are allowed to visit and pray at the wall, and Muslim worshipers are allowed to visit and pray at the mosque.

The most high-profile moment of Trump’s stay in Jerusalem was his visit to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism.

The president will discuss bilateral relations and Israeli-Palestinian conflict with both leaders separately. “For 69 years, Israel has been doing just that”. The U.S. has never recognized Israeli sovereignty over territory occupied in 1967, including east Jerusalem.

Greenblatt has quietly done much of the heavy work for the USA thus far.

The meetings will focus on the USA efforts to revive the long-stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Palestinians and most of the global community consider East Jerusalem, which contains the Old City, as the capital of a future Palestinian state. When the prime minister of Israel said over and over again no pre-conditions. We’ll negotiate it, in Jerusalem.

“I don’t know that there’s anything to apologize for”, he said.

The First Lady didn’t seem to be interested in walking hand-in-hand with her husband, alongside the Israeli prime minister and his wife.

The White House later said the official’s comments “do not represent the position of the United States“.

His first stop will be the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built at the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

Trump says “civilized nations must join together to protect human life”. “That sounds like a policy decision”, he told reporters. And the USA has not wanted to take sides in that dispute. “I think the president has indicated he’s willing to put his own personal efforts into this if the Israelis and the Palestinians are ready to be serious about engaging as well”.

After the two stood up and shook hands, Netanyahu briefly mentioned that Israel-US intelligence cooperation was “terrific”. “Never mentioned the word Israel”.

“These are concessions ahead of Trump’s visit that do not harm Israel’s interests”, an Israeli diplomatic source told Reuters news agency.