US President Donald Trump has, in the space of just a couple of months, invited both the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas over to the White House (not together, of course – we’re not quite at that stage yet) to discuss a possible peace deal between the two nations. Trump promises, “We will get it done.”
Dennis Ross begs to differ
Trump may be eager to “get it done,” but Dennis Ross, a former White House official, has other ideas regarding the matter. According to Ross, inviting Abbas to the White House was a sign that he wanted to help him, but he fears that Palestine distrusts Israel too much, and vice versa, for Trump to make this peace deal happen.
He believes that the mutual distrust between the two nations will be too difficult of an obstacle to overcome.
In fact, Ross said that he’s quite possibly never seen the conflict between Israel and Palestine quite as heated as it is now. In his own words, “The gap between the parties has probably never been greater.” So, Trump has his work cut out bringing them together and making peace. Good luck to him, especially as he mulls over needlessly moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which would serve to do nothing else than p*ss off Abbas – yeah, that’ll help peace talks. Ross may be onto something here.
