President Trump is reportedly weighing whether to pull out of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations following a “tense” meeting between Jared Kushner and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the Jerusalem Post reports.
“Abbas was supposedly furious with the president’s son-in-law after Kushner relayed Israeli demands to the 81-year-old Palestinian leader which included the immediate halt of payments to terrorists and their families.”
“President Trump signed an order keeping the American Embassy in Tel Aviv rather than move it to Jerusalem as he promised during last year’s campaign… disappointing many Israel supporters in hopes of preserving his chances of negotiating a peace settlement,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump made no mention of his pending decision during a visit to Jerusalem just last week and waited to announce it until almost the last minute he could under law, underscoring the deep political sensitivity of the matter.”
Axios: “As a source who has been in the process for multiple presidents told Axios, this is Trump defaulting to the status quo. Bureaucrats brief a new president, show them the doomsday forecast of riots, broken peace deals, new security requirements and other issues, and presidents back off. etc.”
President Trump told a meeting with Israeli leaders that “we just got back from the Middle East,” according to Slate.
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President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a photo opportunity and rebutted last week’s reports that he disclosed sensitive Israeli intelligence on ISIS to Russian officials in the Oval Office, Bloomberg reports.
Said Trump: “I never mentioned the word or the name Israel, never mentioned during that conversation. They’re all saying I did. So you have another story wrong. Never mentioned the word Israel.”
Axios: “Okay, but… the initial reporting from May 15 on Trump’s conversation with the Russians never claimed that he mentioned Israel at all, only that he disclosed information given to the United States by a key ally — which was reported to be Israel the next day — that was not intended to be shared.”
President Trump “has decided not to immediately move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a senior White House official said, violating a campaign promise but avoiding a provocation that could drive Palestinians away from peace talks,” Bloomberg reports.
“The official said the administration considers its discussions with both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to be promising, with the Palestinians in particular agreeing to talk without preconditions. The official asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.”
“I don’t know what the policy of the administration is, but I believe the Western Wall is part of Israel and I think that that is how we’ve always seen it and that’s how we should pursue it.”
— Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, quoted by the Times of Israel, going rogue in a diplomatic spat between the U.S. and Israel over whether the Western Wall is part of Israel or the West Bank.
“The life of a spy placed by Israel inside ISIS is at risk tonight, according to current and former U.S. officials, after President Trump reportedly disclosed classified information in a meeting with Russian officials last week,” ABC News reports.
“The spy provided intelligence involving an active ISIS plot to bring down a passenger jet en route to the United States, with a bomb hidden in a laptop that U.S. officials believe can get through airport screening machines undetected. The information was reliable enough that the U.S. is considering a ban on laptops on all flights from Europe to the United States.”
Two Israeli intelligence officials confirmed to BuzzFeed News that Israel had shared specific intelligence with the U.S. regarding ISIS plots to smuggle explosive laptops onto planes.
The revelation that Trump had shared that intelligence with Russian officials was Israel’s “worst fears confirmed,” said one of the intelligence officers.
Said one: “We have an arrangement with America which is unique to the world of intelligence sharing. We do not have this relationship with any other country… To know that this intelligence is shared with others, without our prior knowledge? That is, for us, our worst fears confirmed.”
The highly classified intelligence that President Trump disclosed in a meeting last week with Russian officials at the White House was provided by Israel, the New York Times reports.
“The revelation adds a potential diplomatic complication to the episode. Israel is one of the United States’ most important allies and a major intelligence collector in the Middle East. The revelation that Mr. Trump boasted about some of Israel’s most sensitive information to the Russians could damage the relationship between the two countries. It also raises the possibility that the information could be passed to Iran, Russia’s close ally and Israel’s main threat in the Middle East.”
“The White House warned Israel — in a surprising statement — to cease settlement announcements that are “unilateral” and ‘undermining’ of President Trump’s effort to forge Middle East peace,” a senior administration official told the Jerusalem Post.
“For the first time, the administration confirmed that Trump is committed to a comprehensive two-state solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict negotiated between the parties.”
The New York Times says the White House clarified the administration “has not taken an official position on settlement activity,” but said Trump would discuss the issue with Netanyahu when they meet Feb. 15.
Secretary of State John Kerry accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel “of thwarting peace in the Middle East, speaking with a clarity and harshness almost never heard from American diplomats when discussing one of their closest and strongest allies,” the New York Times reports.
“With only 23 days left in his four-year turn as secretary of state, during which he made the search for peace in the Middle East one of his driving missions, Mr. Kerry said the Israeli government was undermining any hope of a two-state solution to its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians.”
Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Kerry’s decision to deliver a broad, hard-hitting speech on the Middle East just three weeks before leaving office reflected the frustration many in the administration say they feel about the failure of peace efforts and the accusation by Israel and some of its Washington allies that President Barack Obama hasn’t been a loyal friend.”
Israel’s ambassador the United States told CNN that his country will share evidence with President-elect Donald Trump that the Obama administration was behind a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemned Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territory.
Said ambassador Ron Dermer: “We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels, and if they want to share it with the American people they are welcome to do it.”
“A bitter divide over the Middle East could threaten Democratic Party unity as representatives of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont vowed to upend what they see as the party’s lopsided support of Israel,” the New York Times reports.
“Two of the senator’s appointees to the party’s platform drafting committee, Cornel West and James Zogby, on Wednesday denounced Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and said they believed that rank-and-file Democrats no longer hewed to the party’s staunch support of the Israeli government. They said they would try to get their views incorporated into the platform, the party’s statement of core beliefs, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.”
“The Obama administration is preparing to release convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, according to U.S. officials, some of whom hope the move will smooth relations with Israel in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Such a move would end a decades long fight over Mr. Pollard, who was arrested on charges of spying for Israel in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison. The case has long been a source of tension between the U.S. and Israel, which has argued that a life sentence for spying on behalf of a close U.S. partner is too harsh. For decades, Israel has sought Mr. Pollard’s early release only to be rejected by the U.S.”
First Read: “A week after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s election win last Tuesday, relations between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu aren’t getting better — they’re getting worse.”
“We’re having a hard time thinking of another time when two allies have been THIS angry and been THIS public about their disagreements. Talk about venom and score-settling. As with most angry disagreements between friends, it’s hard to remember who landed the first punch.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized “for warning last week that Arab citizens were voting in “droves,” comments that have been denounced by President Obama, other world leaders, American Jewish leaders and many Israelis as anti-democratic, race-baiting and fear-mongering,” the New York Times reports.
“The apology came hours after Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, announced that Mr. Netanyahu had secured the backing of 67 of the 120 Parliament members elected last week and officially designated him to form the next government.”
President Obama said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “had hampered the Mideast peace process by saying in the closing days of his re-election campaign that there would be no Palestinian state during his tenure as Israel’s leader,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Obama: “We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership, and so that’s why we’ve got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don’t see a chaotic situation in the region.”
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory in this week’s Israeli elections has reverberated through American politics, reinforcing Republican faith in the political wisdom of a hawkish foreign policy, worsening his relationship with President Obama, and energizing liberal critics of Israel’s government. But mostly it has complicated the life of Hillary Clinton,” the New York Times reports.
“As she moves closer to making her campaign for president official, Mrs. Clinton now faces a deepening polarization among Jewish Democrats over Mr. Netanyahu and how the United States should deal with his government.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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