Jerusalem – During his lightning visit to Israel, US President Donald Trump said all the right things to leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers cheering like they were pubescent teens at a Justin Bieber show.
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Iran will never get a nuclear bomb on his watch, he reiterated at the Israel Museum on Tuesday afternoon. There can’t be peace if terror is rewarded, he told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that morning in Bethlehem. He loudly and clearly referred to the Holocaust and six million Jews at Yad Vashem. And at all his public appearances, he managed to avoid using the term ‘two-state solution’. It was more than Netanyahu could have hoped for.
The question is, what now? Despite his insistence that Israel and the Palestinians can reach his coveted “deal,” Trump clearly doesn’t have a plan of how to get there.
When Trump said on Monday, “We’re going to get there… eventually. I hope,” it was a far cry from his early-in-office statement that making peace in the region wouldn’t be that difficult. In his public comments in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, he stuck to generalities and displayed a shallow grasp of the intricacies of the region, preferring to offer platitudes about “Jewish, Moslem and Christians living in peace and security.”
Trump seems be banking on the encouraging signs he said came out of his trip to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with King Salman. Trump’s perceived Saudi willingness to be part of a coalition to fight radical Islam were coupled, in his remarks in Bethlehem, with the notion that an Israel-Palestinian deal would ignite that cooperation, help crush ISIS and forge stability in the region.
That might not have pleased Netanyahu, who has long supported the opposite tactic of bringing moderate Arab states into a coalition that would bolster both sides in an effort forge an Israeli-Palestinian deal.
Trump’s takeaway from his time here are that both Abbas and his friend “Benjamin” are “ready for peace.” He also cautioned, however, that the impetus has to come from within and can’t be reliant on an outside body like the United States.
After Trump’s helicopter flew off to the airport to whisk him to the Vatican for the next stop on his Great Religions tour, Netanyahu and Abbas were likely back at their offices unloosening their ties, and going back to what they’ve been doing for years – not talking to each other. Until the next US election, they’re off the hook.
David Brinn is the managing editor of The Jerusalem Post.
If that’s how you want to see it, David Brinn, that’s your choice.
This commentary is infantile, and not becoming for a professional journalist. No, Trump did not leave Israel with a peace deal in hand. No one with a positive IQ would have expected that, and the absence of one does not indicate any minuscule degree of failure. He did make several powerful statements that are quite welcome since the most terror-loving president left office. Regardless, all of the statements of these leaders are messages to the media. Abbas did a lame job at that, and said some completely stupid things, intended for the Muslim masses. Trump did not acknowledge a single one of these demands by Abbas. Obama would have, and pressured Israel to concede and capitulate. Trump has not given any indication that he will renege on the alliance with Israel and to twist arms.
I firmly believe that Trump accomplished what he needed.
We have junk science, fake news, and garbage commentary.
To 2: Obama is not in office. This editorial is not about Obama.
Making nice speeches that use the correct phrases is not an accomplishment while people continue to die in the region and the rest of the world .
He did fine on this trip. Better than people feared.
to 7: Tell that to all the kedoshim hy’d and wounded Jews – in the region. I am sure they will agree with your fawning adulation of a speech with no actions.