Trump comments project confidence on Middle East peace, but light on details

What We’re Reading

Trump-Abbas meeting

Trump: Middle East Peace Is 'Not as Difficult as People Have Thought',

“We want to create peace between Israel and the Palestinians. We will get it done,” Trump said. “We will be working so hard to get it done. I think there is a very good chance and I think we will.”

Full text of Trump-Abbas joint White House statements,

The text of joint statements made by US President Donald Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the White House, May 3, 2017, released by the White House press office.

Trump ‘raises concerns’ with Abbas on prisoner payments,

US President Donald Trump asked Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to stop payments to families of Palestinians imprisoned on terror-related charges during their meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

Top US official: Trump won’t be patient on Israeli-Palestinian issues,

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Tuesday that the president would not be interested in the finer points of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but would instead be pushing for quick results in resolving it.

Trump Taps Kris Bauman, Expert on Peace Process With Palestinians, as New Israel Adviser,

The Trump administration has chosen Kris Bauman, an Air Force colonel and expert on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, to replace Yael Lempert as the National Security Council’s point man for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Occupation/Human rights

UK parliament panel: Israel's politics diminish possibilities of peace,

A new report penned by the British Parliament’s International Relations Committee harshly criticized Israel’s policies, apparently portraying the country and its leadership as those to blame for the current grim state of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

'Israel has never recognized its Palestinian citizens',

Thousands of Palestinians participated in the March of Return on Tuesday, gathering at the site of the destroyed village of Al-Kabri in the Galilee. Below is a translated transcript of the speech given by Anat Matar, a member of the Israeli Committee for Palestinian Prisoners, at the event.

How Israeli police solved a case of suspected 'terrorism' in record time,

An initial police report on an attempted stabbing in the West Bank uses the word ‘terrorist’ to describe the suspect. Only when it transpires that the would-be attacker is Jewish does the word ‘terrorist’ vanish.

Palestinian politics

Abbas stops funding Gaza electricity to pressure Hamas,

The West Bank-based government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will stop paying for electricity in the power-starved Gaza Strip and “dry up” the flow of funds to the territory’s Hamas rulers, a senior PA official said Wednesday.

Opinion: Gaza power crisis: The Palestinian Authority is adding to people's misery,

“The PA joins Egypt and Israel in collectively punishing Palestinians in Gaza while maintaining that it has their best interests at heart,” writes Sharif Nashashibi.

Ramallah: Mass rally for hunger-striking prisoners,

Thousands take to the streets in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for 17 days in Israeli jails.

PA official rejects ‘insane’ US demand to stop paying terrorists,

“It’s absurd to request that we stop paying the families of prisoners,” PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ foreign affairs adviser Nabil Shaath on Thursday told Israel Radio. “That would be like asking Israel to stop paying its soldiers.”

Hamas rejects Abbas peace proposal outline to Trump,

“No one has authorized Mahmoud Abbas to represent the Palestinian people and no one is obligated to any position he’s issued,” Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri wrote on Twitter.

Israeli politics

Zionist Union MK says opposition will back Netanyahu for peace moves,

Amir Peretz tells Trump his party will free PM from right-wing coalition pressures; Herzog says he had no authority to send missive.

Controversial Likud backbencher Hazan endorses Le Pen,

An outspoken and scandal-ridden MK from the ruling Likud party on Wednesday endorsed far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen ahead of the second round runoff election in France.