Fresh off his high-profile meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump may next turn his attention to what he has called the “ultimate deal” — a new U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law, and Jason Greenblatt, his Middle East peace envoy, visited the Middle East last week to test ideas for the plan and explore ways to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza. And in a wide-ranging interview with a Palestinian newspaper at the end of the trip, Kushner promised the plan would soon be ready, while heavily criticizing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and hinting at a potential truce between Hamas and Israel.
Putting out a new U.S. peace plan at this moment would be a terrible mistake that would likely only make matters worse. The White House should instead postpone whatever peace plan is in the works and focus foremost on stabilizing the situation in Gaza.
It is impossible to be a mediator in a conflict or release a credible peace plan when one side refuses to even talk to you.
It is impossible to be a mediator in a conflict or release a credible peace plan when one side refuses to even talk to you.Palestinian leaders have not met with senior U.S. officials for the past six months, since Trump announced that he would move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. In that context, the content of a plan would not matter. The Palestinians would reject it out of hand. READ MORE
