Palestinian President voices commitment to two-state solution

The Washington Post reported last week that Trump revealed what it said was highly classified information on Daesh (ISIS) during a recent meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow’s Washington Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

It offers Israel peace, recognition and normalisation in return for allowing the Palestinians to have their own state nearby, along the 1967 lines, in accordance with many internationally approved peace formulas. They’re losers, and we’ll have more of them.

Hours before the arrival of US President Donald Trump to Bethlehem, for a meeting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the families of some 1,500 hunger-striking Palestinian detainees sent a letter to Trump telling him that Palestinian prisoners are freedom fighters, according to worldwide law, and they do not want them to die inside Israeli prisons.

“Minister Bennett’s words are motivated by the appreciation that even those Jewish children who might not be living in Israel still deserve to understand the centrality of our traditions and history”, he said. While Trump benefits from growing Arab interest in working with Israel to counter Iran and the Islamic State group, Shapiro said, not much could be inferred from Israeli and Palestinian acquiescence to talks.

Would Matthews say the same about Western treatment of Muslims in the Middle East? He pointedly sidestepped any mention of the thorny issues that have stymied all previous attempts at a peace deal, including the status of Jerusalem, Israeli settlement construction and the Palestinians’ demand for a sovereign nation. He called on Arab and Muslim leaders to step up in the fight against terrorism during an address in Saudi Arabia, and he called on Israelis and Palestinians to get back to the negotiating table during remarks Tuesday in Jerusalem.

My Faith Votes leader Jason Yates also hailed Trump’s trip, particularly to Israel.

Trump also did not speak about a two-state solution, something that was once a part of the Republican Party’s platform but the president has yet to endorse. “It must also be counted in generations of vanished dreams”, Trump said, in his first speech delivered overseas since taking office. Just as he did not elaborate about the Palestinian right for self-determination, Trump refused to go into the question of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.

But does Trump have a peace plan?

In a speech Tuesday at the Israel Museum, the president heaped praise on Israel, while calling on both sides to make compromises toward peace.

Mr. Abbas reiterated to Mr. Trump “our commitment to cooperate with you in order to make peace and forge a historic peace deal” and to become partners with the US against terrorism.

The White House made another unfortunate typo in a live video feed of Trump’s visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, by incorrectly spelling the museum “Vad Vanshem” – something that sounds closer to the name of a Dutch count.

The 50th anniversary of Israel’s capture of territories that Palestinians seek for a state is next month.

Trump, meanwhile, told Herzog, the Zionist Union leader: “I am serious about a deal and I am determined”.

“We are telling you right now that Iran will not have nuclear weapons”, he added.

In the West Bank, where protesters are demonstrating solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the sentiment was similar.

But Brom and Shapiro agreed that Trump’s domestic situation does not affect his clout with Israel and the Palestinians.

While both Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas have made positive noises about their readiness to negotiate, both also face domestic constraints on their freedom to manoeuvre and strike a deal.