Will there be peace in the ME easy at all as Trump hopes?

Standing alongside Trump, Abbas, 82 and in the 12th year of his original five-year term, said that he was determined to deliver an agreement for all Palestinians, although he did not provide any substance on how such an objective could be achieved

Donald Trump president of the United States (US) talked up on May 23, 2017 that the prospects of peace between Israelis and Palestinians are bright. He believed both sides were committed to an historic deal. But he offered no concrete proposals on how to get there. After an hour of talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in the Israeli-occupied Bethlehem city of West Bank, Trump condemned the bomb attack in Manchester that killed 22 people, calling the perpetrators "evil losers". He then moved on to address towards Middle East peace efforts.   
Trump said, with the 50th anniversary of Israel's capture of territories that Palestinians seek for a state approaching next month June 2017 that "I am committed to trying to achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians and I intend to do everything I can to help them achieve that goal. President Abbas assures me he is ready to work towards that goal in good faith, and Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has promised the same. I look forward to working with these leaders towards a lasting peace”. While Trump has spoken frequently in the months since he took office about his desire to achieve what he has dubbed the "ultimate deal", he has not fleshed out any strategy his administration might have towards achieving it. 
Trump also faces difficulties at home, where he is struggling to contain a scandal after firing James Comey as FBI director two weeks ago in May 2017. He has appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior adviser on brokering an agreement, while Jason Greenblatt, formerly a lawyer in Trump's real estate group, and has taken the day-to-day role of liaising with officials and leaders in the region on the nitty-gritty contours of any solution. The last talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, led by former US secretary of state John Kerry, broke down in April 2014 after around a year of largely fruitless discussion. 
The US President Donald Trump and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered remarks after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on May 23, 2017. While both Netanyahu and Abbas have made positive noises about their readiness to negotiate. Both also face domestic constraints on their freedom to manoeuvre and strike a deal. Netanyahu must deal with opposition from rightist elements within his coalition who oppose any steps towards a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict since 1948. Abbas's Fatah party is at sharp odds with the Islamist group Hamas, which is in power in Gaza, leaving no unified Palestinian position on peace. 
Standing alongside Trump, Abbas, 82 and in the 12th year of his original five-year term, said that he was determined to deliver an agreement for all Palestinians, although he did not provide any substance on how such an objective could be achieved. He said, speaking through an interpreter that "I would like to reiterate our commitment to cooperate with you in order to make peace and forge an historic peace deal with the Israelis. And we would like to reassert our willingness to continue to work with you as partners in fighting terrorism in our region and in the world”. 
Ahead of his visit to the Middle East, the second leg of a nine-day long tour that began in Saudi Arabia and will move on to the Vatican, Italy and Belgium, the US administration officials indicated that Trump might talk about "Palestinian self-determination", a nod towards the ultimate objective of statehood. But in his public remarks, Trump steered clears of any such language, and did not mention what has been the goal of the US diplomacy for two decades: a state of Israel and an independent Palestinian state co-existing side-by-side. During meetings with Netanyahu on May 22, 2017, Trump focused attention on the threat from Iran but also talked about the opportunities for peace in the region and how Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations were shifting their stance, potentially opening a window towards a regional agreement. 
One of the long-standing regional proposals is a Saudi peace initiative that was first put forward in 2002 and has been re-endorsed several times since then. In effect, it would offer Israel recognition by the Arab world and the "normalisation" of relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from the territory Israel has occupied since the June 1967 Middle East war, including East Jerusalem. It also urges a "just settlement" of the Palestinian refugee problem. Netanyahu has expressed tentative support for parts of the initiative, but there are many caveats on the Israeli side, including how to resolve the ever more complex refugee issue and whether Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights, strategic territory that Israel took from Syria in the 1967 war. 
A former adviser to Abbas, Husam Zumlot, who is now the Palestinian ambassador in Washington, said that the contours of any deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians were well known to both sides. He said that if negotiations were to resume, they needed to be about the core issues, not talks about talks. He told that President Trump is really, really serious and he thinks peace is possible. It is not easy, but we agree with him – peace is possible. All the stars are aligned. "We are ready. Everything is ready”, he added. But past experiences say that the Middle East peace issue is a very tricky phenomenon and it is very difficult to gather all the concerned parties in the same platform. Even then let us hope that much needed peace will be there to relieve of all the Middle Eastern parties concerned and the World in general. 

The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General 
Education Cadre

 

Will there be peace in the ME easy at all as Trump hopes?

Standing alongside Trump, Abbas, 82 and in the 12th year of his original five-year term, said that he was determined to deliver an agreement for all Palestinians, although he did not provide any substance on how such an objective could be achieved

Donald Trump president of the United States (US) talked up on May 23, 2017 that the prospects of peace between Israelis and Palestinians are bright. He believed both sides were committed to an historic deal. But he offered no concrete proposals on how to get there. After an hour of talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in the Israeli-occupied Bethlehem city of West Bank, Trump condemned the bomb attack in Manchester that killed 22 people, calling the perpetrators evil losers. He then moved on to address towards Middle East peace efforts. Trump said, with the 50th anniversary of Israels capture of territories that Palestinians seek for a state approaching next month June 2017 that I am committed to trying to achieve a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians and I intend to do everything I can to help them achieve that goal. President Abbas assures me he is ready to work towards that goal in good faith, and Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has promised the same. I look forward to working with these leaders towards a lasting peace. While Trump has spoken frequently in the months since he took office about his desire to achieve what he has dubbed the ultimate deal, he has not fleshed out any strategy his administration might have towards achieving it. Trump also faces difficulties at home, where he is struggling to contain a scandal after firing James Comey as FBI director two weeks ago in May 2017. He has appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior adviser on brokering an agreement, while Jason Greenblatt, formerly a lawyer in Trumps real estate group, and has taken the day-to-day role of liaising with officials and leaders in the region on the nitty-gritty contours of any solution. The last talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, led by former US secretary of state John Kerry, broke down in April 2014 after around a year of largely fruitless discussion. The US President Donald Trump and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered remarks after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on May 23, 2017. While both Netanyahu and Abbas have made positive noises about their readiness to negotiate. Both also face domestic constraints on their freedom to manoeuvre and strike a deal. Netanyahu must deal with opposition from rightist elements within his coalition who oppose any steps towards a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict since 1948. Abbass Fatah party is at sharp odds with the Islamist group Hamas, which is in power in Gaza, leaving no unified Palestinian position on peace. Standing alongside Trump, Abbas, 82 and in the 12th year of his original five-year term, said that he was determined to deliver an agreement for all Palestinians, although he did not provide any substance on how such an objective could be achieved. He said, speaking through an interpreter that I would like to reiterate our commitment to cooperate with you in order to make peace and forge an historic peace deal with the Israelis. And we would like to reassert our willingness to continue to work with you as partners in fighting terrorism in our region and in the world. Ahead of his visit to the Middle East, the second leg of a nine-day long tour that began in Saudi Arabia and will move on to the Vatican, Italy and Belgium, the US administration officials indicated that Trump might talk about Palestinian self-determination, a nod towards the ultimate objective of statehood. But in his public remarks, Trump steered clears of any such language, and did not mention what has been the goal of the US diplomacy for two decades: a state of Israel and an independent Palestinian state co-existing side-by-side. During meetings with Netanyahu on May 22, 2017, Trump focused attention on the threat from Iran but also talked about the opportunities for peace in the region and how Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations were shifting their stance, potentially opening a window towards a regional agreement. One of the long-standing regional proposals is a Saudi peace initiative that was first put forward in 2002 and has been re-endorsed several times since then. In effect, it would offer Israel recognition by the Arab world and the normalisation of relations in exchange for a full withdrawal from the territory Israel has occupied since the June 1967 Middle East war, including East Jerusalem. It also urges a just settlement of the Palestinian refugee problem. Netanyahu has expressed tentative support for parts of the initiative, but there are many caveats on the Israeli side, including how to resolve the ever more complex refugee issue and whether Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights, strategic territory that Israel took from Syria in the 1967 war. A former adviser to Abbas, Husam Zumlot, who is now the Palestinian ambassador in Washington, said that the contours of any deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians were well known to both sides. He said that if negotiations were to resume, they needed to be about the core issues, not talks about talks. He told that President Trump is really, really serious and he thinks peace is possible. It is not easy, but we agree with him peace is possible. All the stars are aligned. We are ready. Everything is ready, he added. But past experiences say that the Middle East peace issue is a very tricky phenomenon and it is very difficult to gather all the concerned parties in the same platform. Even then let us hope that much needed peace will be there to relieve of all the Middle Eastern parties concerned and the World in general. The writer is a retired Professor of Economics, BCS General Education Cadre