Trump’s Envoy to Mideast Meets With Mahmoud Abbas in West Bank
In a joint statement released by the American Consulate, the envoy, Jason Greenblatt, a real estate lawyer turned diplomat, "underscored President Trump’s commitment to working with Israelis
and Palestinians to achieve a lasting peace through direct negotiations." No breakthroughs or new approaches were reported on Mr. Greenblatt’s second day in the region after his meeting with Mr. Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the seat of Palestinian government.
By IAN FISHERMARCH 14, 2017
JERUSALEM — President Trump’s new envoy to the Middle East met on Tuesday with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, striving in the
administration’s first diplomatic undertaking here to maintain a public evenhandedness amid the deep distrust between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr. Greenblatt has arrived as tensions are pushing in on many sides: Fifty years have passed since Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza
and East Jerusalem, and leaders and people on all sides are deeply skeptical about the possibility of two states existing side by side here.
In the statement on Tuesday, Mr. Abbas said he told Mr. Greenblatt "that under President Trump’s leadership,
a historic peace deal is possible." Mr. Greenblatt’s meetings have taken place in deep secrecy.
Still, Mr. Trump told Mr. Netanyahu publicly that settlement construction did not help the peace process,
and several Trump officials have reached out to Mr. Abbas’s government (although the issue of Gaza, ruled by Hamas, a rival Palestinian group, has received little attention so far in the visit).
At the same time, Mr. Netanyahu — under pressure from his coalition’s powerful right wing to begin annexing settlements — faces the specific problem of finding new homes for the residents of Amona, a recently dismantled settlement
that has become a rallying point for many on the right in Israel.