Abbas meets Trump

What We’re Reading

Abbas-Trump meeting

Mahmoud Abbas set to meet Donald Trump in US visit,

US President Donald Trump will host Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the path forward in the long-running Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The Palestinian president is visiting Washington. A new survey shows Americans divided on the peace process.,

Despite the trend in the general public toward a more evenhanded approach on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, that’s not the case for Trump backers.

Jordan and Egypt key to Abbas' Washington visit,

“With the support of Egypt and Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is hoping that he can slightly change the balance of forces in favor of a fair process in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict ahead of his visit to the United States,” writes Daoud Kuttab.

Hamas

Hamas's new direction hits brick wall of Palestinian opinion,

Palestinian analysts have rounded on Hamas after it published a policy document promising a new direction, with some saying it had dispensed with decades of struggle in an attempt to gain international legitimacy.

Opinion: Time to bring Hamas in from the cold,

“The EU should welcome Hamas’ new political platform and seize the opportunity to engage moderates within the movement,” writes Hugh Lovatt.

Opinion: Why Hamas' New Charter Is Aimed at Palestinians, Not Israelis,

“Hamas’s new document was written in the knowledge that the following conclusion is widespread among Palestinians: The concessions on fundamental principles made by the PLO and its dominant Fatah faction haven’t made Israel change; on the contrary, they have let it intensify its process of taking over territory and its rule over the Palestinian people,” writes Amira Hass.

Israel and the UN

UNESCO passes Jerusalem resolution critical of Israel,

UNESCO’s executive board has passed a resolution that criticises Israel’s actions in occupied Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, with Palestinian leaders hailing the move as a “step forward” and a “victory for international law”.

Israel Slashes UN Funding by $1 Million Over UNESCO Vote Critical of Israeli Policy,

Israel will cut another $1 million dollars in funding to the UN, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced at a cabinet meeting Wednesday morning following the passage of a UNESCO resolution critical of Israeli policy a day earlier.

US-Israel relations

Trump’s Israel-Palestine Negotiator Is Perfectly Unqualified,

“The measure of Greenblatt’s work is whether it actually brings the sides back to the negotiating table, creating space for the kind of diplomatic breakthrough that can change the dynamics of a now-static process,” writes Armin Rosen.

Gaza

With Gaza’s electricity crisis worsening, residents face imminent danger,

A worsening of the humanitarian situation is a matter of time, considering severe disruptions in supply to water pumping stations (for household use), sewage disposal and treatment facilities, and hospitals.

2 Israelis Who Entered Gaza Held Incommunicado,

Two Israeli men with serious mental health conditions who crossed separately from Israel into the Gaza Strip in 2014 and 2015 have apparently been held by the Hamas military wing, Human Rights Watch said today.

Israeli politics

Opinion: Combatants for Hate,

“Israel’s refusal to allow 225 Palestinians into the country to attend a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony shows the government will do anything to dehumanize ‘the other,'” write the editors of Ha’aretz.

Occupation/Human rights

Israeli forces shut down Hebron in search of missing settlers later found in Jerusalem,

Israeli authorities closed all entrances of Hebron city in the southern occupied West Bank early Wednesday in search of three Israeli settlers who had went missing and were later found in Jerusalem.