Israelis and Palestinians are ready ‘to reach for peace’

A senior Palestinian official says he expects President Donald Trump’s visit to the Holy Land to reopen a path toward resuming long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

He began the journey in Saudi Arabia, telling a gathering of 50 leaders form Muslim countries that they must root out extremism within their countries.

He was accompanied by the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, who said on Israel Radio that he recited two psalms with the United States leader. “And it must cease – immediately”.

“During my travels I have seen many hopeful signs that lead me to believe that we can truly achieve a more hopeful future for people of this religion and for people of all faiths and all beliefs and frankly all over the world”, Trump said, delivering remarks Monday evening alongside Netanyahu.

Trump initially sparked deep concern among Palestinians when he backed away from the long U.S. commitment to a two-state solution to the conflict.

He went on to reiterate America’s stance against Iran’s nuclear proliferation. They can’t do it. “I truly do, but I’m not very optimistic”, Rubio told CNN’s “New Day”.

Trump said in March that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is “maybe not as hard as people have thought”, though he has not given any indication of how he might approach the issue differently. We all know that. I know you’ve heard it before. I can tell you also that he is reaching for peace.

The U.S. president said that peace is possible “if we put aside the pain and disagreements of the past”. “The club has been in Jerusalem since before the creation of Israel, and thus the flag is not simply an item on a uniform; it is part of who we are”. Tremendous progress has been made.

President Trump is out of the country, and Stephen Colbert said that gave him a little extra pep in his step. We’ll approach it, I think, with a lot of humility. That is being taken as support for Israel.

“Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name Israel, never mentioned it in that conversation”, Trump said. The Palestinians have compared the payments to the salaries Israel pays to soldiers. “I look forward to working with these leaders towards a lasting peace”.

But perhaps the most significant – and unnoticed – result of Trump’s deep connection to the heart of Israel came when the White House broke with decades of policy by quietly acknowledging that Jerusalem is, in fact, part of the Jewish state, posting the video feed of Trump’s visit on its official website with the caption “Jerusalem Israel”.

Preparing the ground for Trump-Abbas meet today in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Israeli ministers on Sunday approved certain measures aimed at improving the Palestinian economy and facilitating crossings to ease movement of Palestinians at the request of U.S. administration, local media reported.

The Palestinian president also complained about the illegal settlement activity of Israel in the West Bank, saying the conflict with Israel is not of a religious nature. Trump’s ambassador to Israel David Friedman is a well-respected bankruptcy lawyer who worked with Trump.

A succession of US presidents have attempted to negotiate peace between Israel and the Palestinians, whose modern-day conflict dates to the 1948 establishment of the Jewish state, and all have failed. At least one person was reportedly injured at the Qalandia checkpoint near Jerusalem. That echoed the Israeli demand for Palestinian leaders to stop paying stipends to those who attack Israelis – as Netanyahu subsequently noted.

He arrived in Bethlehem by motorcade, crossing a checkpoint at Israel’s controversial separation wall, and was greeted by Abbas and other dignitaries outside the city’s presidential palace. The Israeli and Palestinian authorities cleared the main roads of Jerusalem and Bethlehem for the movements of his armed and mighty motorcade.

This is published unedited from the PTI feed.