May 4, 2017

Donald Trump was not the first American president to welcome Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House. As at the meetings with President Bill Clinton, when Abbas sat next to PLO leader Yasser Arafat, and subsequent talks with Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the sides discussed a diplomatic process with Israel, the need to combat terrorism, the severe economic problems in the Palestinian territories and opportunities to promote regional peace. It’s too soon to tell whether Trump’s stated desire to make a deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians will bring the sides closer than did the efforts of his predecessors, all of which ended in deep Palestinian disappointment. But there are several hopeful signs in this latest meeting.

The first is the invitation itself, extended to Abbas so early in the US president’s term. A stateless leader, a president who barely controls his own territory, got the nod before heads of far larger and more important countries standing in line for a photo-op with Trump. It placed Abbas in the same tier of White House invitees as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Deputy Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Abdul-Aziz, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. And all within the first six months of Trump’s first term.

The second encouraging difference lies in the Israeli prime minister’s special relationship with the US president and his cohort of advisers and donors. Abbas’ greatest rival was accorded a royal welcome at the White House in February, and will probably be among the first world leaders to host Trump. In light of these special relations, Netanyahu will be hard pressed to attack Trump for attempting to undermine his favorite delaying tactic, the status quo, and to accuse him, as he did President Barack Obama, of pro-Islamic leanings. Throughout the election campaign, and since taking office, Trump has been exposed to the views of donors and advisers who support the views of the Israeli and Jewish right. Abbas was given an opportunity this week to present the views of the Palestinian side directly and to stroke the presidential ego.

The third difference lies in Trump’s unique character. His predecessors had sent experts to study the positions of both sides, to analyze the underlying problems and recommend solutions. The sum total of their efforts was less peace and more Israeli settlers in areas claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. But Trump is a businessman, striving to "close a deal" that will benefit the United States but primarily his ego. He is not interested in complaints. He is bored by other people’s problems. So don’t talk to him about obstacles; just get rid of them!

After standing beside Netanyahu at a joint February news conference and blurting out his bizarre statement that he doesn’t care if the sides agree on a one-state or two-state solution, Trump’s advisers convinced him that the only viable deal to be struck in the Middle Eastern political bazaar is to divide the land in two along the 1967 Israeli borders (with some adjustments), including the city of Jerusalem that both claim as their capital. This is exactly the solution to which Abbas has aspired for years. For Netanyahu, however, there is no solution more dire — both ideologically and politically — than a withdrawal from the West Bank and a surrender of Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem. So as not to arrive at such a dangerous juncture, he is placing obstacles along the road leading to it.