Palestinians think Trump can make a deal

As Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prepares for his first meeting with us President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday, the Arab leader and his advisers are expressing a kind of optimism not heard in years, The Washington Post reported.

The Palestinians are saying they think Trump might be the one — with the right mix of bombast and unpredictability — to restart peace negotiations with Israel with the aim of securing Palestinian borders, a capital and a state.

It is an unusual moment because hope is not in abundant supply in the Middle East these days.

Most Israelis and Palestinians tell pollsters that they have low expectations for any change. Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank turns 50 years old in June, and Trump has called a possible Palestinian-Israeli accord “the toughest deal in the world.”

Similarly, former US peace negotiators in Washington and their Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem say conditions are not right for a renewal of talks.

“There’s incredibly low expectations” for the Trump-Abbas meeting, said David Makovsky, a former negotiator who is a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“There’s no context for a grand deal,” he said. Makovsky said neither Trump’s base nor the Jewish American community seems to be pushing for new talks.

But Abbas and his aides insist that movement is possible and say Trump just might be able to make headway.

Nine months of peace talks under then-Secretary of State John F. Kerry broke down amid bitter recriminations by Israelis and Palestinians in April 2014.

Source: MENA