Senior US delegation in Israel trying to revive peace talks

White House aide Jared Kushner held talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Thursday with the aim of restarting long-stalled peace efforts, but pessimism was high over US President Donald Trump’s pledge to reach the “ultimate deal”.

This was Kushner’s third official visit to the region.

Coates is a spirited choice to work with Kushner and Greenblatt, two Trump loyalists who are new to politics and foreign policy. “Israel deserves better leadership”.

Meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Jared Kushner in Tel Aviv.

He said that if approved, the proposed amendment to the “Basic Law: Jerusalem the Capital of Israel” would further cement Israeli control over occupied East Jerusalem and would limit the ability of both sides to reach a negotiated solution that is in line with United Nations resolutions and prior agreements.

Aaron David Miller is a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and author of “The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President”. His credibility – and that of the United States – depends on it. “We are not in the administration’s priorities”. “They all come in thinking they’ll be the ones to solve this, and then they find out how hard it really is”. Abbas and the Palestinian Authority, along with Israel, have been squeezing Gaza by reducing basic supplies to its Hamas rulers, including electricity. Above all, they don’t think Netanyahu is a partner for peace.

The Regularization law, passed by the Israeli parliament in February, states that any settlements built in the occupied West Bank “in good faith” – without knowledge that the land upon which it was built was privately owned by Palestinians – could be officially recognized by Israel pending minimal proof of governmental support in its establishment and some form of compensation to the Palestinian landowners. Reports in Arabic media, according to the Times of Israel, suggested that an American delegation eventually reduced its demand, and insisted that the PA only cut payments to roughly 600 prisoners directly responsible for the Israeli deaths.

The delegation, arrived in Israel on Wednesday, is scheduled to meet Thursday also with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. He has conditioned his cooperation with Kushner’s peace initiative on a public commitment to a two-state solution.

Now 82, Abbas is in poor health and struggling to stay politically relevant after 12 years in office that failed to make progress toward Palestinian statehood. Mr Ross anticipated that now “the administration will need to decide its next step – parallel moves or statements worked out with each of the parties, resuming negotiations with some agreed basis, some broad agreement on shared principles, or some combination of all these elements”.

Bin Salman and the official talked about ways to achieve “a real and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians” and stability in the wider Middle East and beyond, the Saudi state news agency SPA said.

Taylor Force, an American student and former U.S. Army officer, was brutally murdered by a terrorist in Jaffa, Israel.

Palestinians could live with this, as they had lived before, but this time, they also lack any meaningful support from the Arab world, which is entangled in various regional conflicts – political, logistical and financial.

This is consistent with statements made by President Trump in the past. But in Israel he was largely greeted as an improvement upon his predecessor, President Barack Obama. “That’s why we will ask them whether they have answers about the basic issues”. The Administration turned its back on a core bipartisan foreign policy principle, thumbed its nose at an global consensus regarding the way to resolve the conflict, and handed a gift to extremists on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide. But there’s a bigger problem: No one can actually work out what Kushner’s plan is. During an April meeting at the White House, Trump was effusive in his praise for Sissi. “What do we offer that’s unique?”

Trump has said he would accept any solution that would resolve the conflict.