Free Republic

Palestinian Authority officials did not attend the meeting, which focused on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. WASHINGTON – Israeli national security officials sat around the same table on Tuesday morning with their counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, discussing a dire humanitarian situation unfolding in the Gaza Strip. The summit on Gaza, called by Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law and senior adviser on Middle East peace, as well as Jason Greenblatt, his special representative for international negotiations, marks an unprecedented moment for Israeli diplomacy, as their dialogue with officials from Arab states is...

Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump's Special Representative for International Negotiations, on Sunday evening condemned Gaza’s Hamas leaders in the wake of the recent attacks on Israel. “HAMAS hides improvised explosive device to attack Israeli soldiers & is shooting rockets at Israel again! Such cowardly acts will only escalate violence, not build the prosperous society the people of Gaza deserve!” he tweeted. .....

The Palestinian Authority said Monday that Greenblatt’s efforts to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel “have no chances of succeeding.” The Palestinians are particularly angered at what they believe is a US effort to replace the current leadership of the PA. Greenblatt, in a speech before the annual conference of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, said that the United States “is as committed as ever to reaching an agreement that guarantees a peaceful, prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians. That’s why this administration continues to work on developing a peace plan that can bring both parties to...

Unless Trump intends to humiliate himself and America and sell Israel down the river like his predecessors did, the peace process will not be resuscitated. On Tuesday in Bethlehem, the Palestinians demonstrated the choice the Americans now face in their dealings with Fatah – the supposedly moderate PLO faction that controls the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. President Donald Trump and his advisers can play by Fatah’s rules or they can walk away. On Tuesday a delegation of diplomats from the US Consulate in Jerusalem came to Bethlehem to participate in a meeting of the local chamber of commerce. When...

So it’s come to this. The PA (Palestinian Authority) is upset with us…so upset that its leaders are threatening to cut ties with us here in the United States. All that started soon after President Trump delivered on his promise to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel…to which we can only say Amen. Come to think of it, this is actually the tenth time the Palestinian Arabs have made that threat…but who’s counting? More to the point – who cares? Is there a downside to this? I see nothing but good. Are we supposed to be afraid? I think Freud...

The Palestinians will not meet with any United States officials regarding the peace process in the future, in response to US President Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a senior diplomatic adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told The Times of Israel on Sunday. The open-ended boycott includes Trump’s top peace envoy Jason Greenblatt, who is due here this week, as well as the US leader’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner. “No one from the American administration will be met to discuss peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis, because the [PA]...

It seems to be a regular feature of the U.S presidential election cycle: Candidates from both parties solemnly pledge to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, only to sidestep the issue upon taking office. Shouldn't the selection of a capital city rest solely with the people of the country who reside there? Donald Trump believes it should. As president, he would recognize the right of the Israeli people to choose their capital city (a choice, incidentally, that has remained unchanged throughout 3,500 years of uninterrupted Jewish presence in Israel). That choice is Jerusalem. Ever since King David established Jerusalem as the...