President Mahmoud Abbas will look to position himself as the man the US needs

As far as visits go, President Mahmoud Abbas' trip to the White House carries with it low expectations but big opportunities.

The Palestinian leader needs what Donald Trump can offer and he needs it badly.

Mr Trump offers relevancy to Mr Abbas whose authority is weakening by the day.

At 82 years of age, Abu Mazen is in the twilight of his career and the wolves are circling.

Although he still has a grip on the instruments of government and leadership - Fatah, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority - he is profoundly unpopular and is disregarded on the Palestinian street.


He is viewed as out of touch, increasingly authoritarian and presiding over a corrupt administration.

The release of a new, apparently more moderate Hamas charter, is an open challenge to his leadership.

So is the mass hunger strike launched by Fatah rival Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail on murder and terror charges. He is seen by many Palestinians as the Nelson Mandela of the West Bank.

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The meeting then will be a chance for Mr Abbas to not only look like the leader of the Palestinians but also to position himself as the man the US administration needs if Mr Trump is to solve the Middle East conflict and land what he has described in the past as the "ultimate deal".

Only last week he went again on the record stating: "There is no reason there's not peace between Israel and the Palestinians - none whatsoever."

But what has eluded previous presidents is unlikely to become tangible for Mr Trump whatever he says.

Former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross believes the chances for peace have never looked so bleak.

"As someone who has worked in this for 30 years I don't think we have ever been at a lower point," he said.

"Not in terms of the level of violence because whilst there is violence it doesn't compare to the second intifada but the level of disbelief between the two sides has never been greater. The cynicism about what can happen has never been worse."

Mr Ross likes to quote a recent poll which shows that 69% of the Israeli public are in favour of a two-state solution but 91% believe it will never happen.

However, it is one of the absurdities of conflict resolution that it may take a "non-politician", like Donald Trump, to breathe life back into the moribund peace process and break the stalemate even if it ultimately does not succeed.

As a businessman he will undoubtedly take a different approach.

He may just breeze past all the ancient claims to land and instead, flashing his gargantuan and capricious temperament, build a deal based on mutual compromise and what's fair reflecting the realities of the here and now.

Mr Trump has already made it clear to both the Palestinians and the Israelis that he is not Barack Obama and defying him will not be so easy.

His responses are hard to read and they often appear to be (perhaps deliberately) guided by emotion rather than the logic of reason.

That said Donald Trump's Middle East policy has so far appeared incoherent and unpredictable.

So where does this leave President Abbas?

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He needs to impress on Mr Trump that he is the real McCoy: that he is a man you can do business with and that he is worth investing human capital in.

If Mr Abbas is successful he can then turn what is billed as a fairly unimportant meeting into something more substantial.

He can expose Mr Trump to the Palestinian narrative and work on building a strategic partnership.

The US president is already well versed in Israel's viewpoint of the conflict, surrounded as he is, by Jewish Middle East advisers.

He is slated to visit Israel towards the end of this month; perhaps that visit could also see a trip to Ramallah?

This is then a huge opportunity for Mahmoud Abbas but converting it into something solid will not be easy. He is likely to come under pressure from Mr Trump.

For instance, it is expected the US leader will ask him to end payments to the families of terrorists and people serving time in Israeli jails for terror offences.

Consenting to such a request and upending the Palestinian policy of paying "martyrs" will be tricky.

But then staying relevant does not come cheap.

In Washington and the Middle East there is no such thing as a free lunch.