Palestinians: Trump-Abbas Talk Proves Israel Has Partner for Peace

Abbas Pushed for Emphasis on Two-State Solution

by Jason Ditz,

President Trump’s phone call last week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which ended with an invitation to the White House to further discuss the prospects of getting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process restarted, may have been a fairly brief talk, but Palestinians say it emphasized something very important, that Abbas is a partner for peace.

Israel’s far-right has long dismissed the peace process out of hand on those grounds, insisting that Israel is inherently peaceful and reasonable, but that there is no talking to the Palestinians, and that none of their leaders would even countenance a discussion of peace.

Abbas’ talk with Trump underscores that this isn’t true, though his emphasis on the two-state solution, which President Trump already expressed comfort with abandoning, likely leaves him in the position of a partner that the current Israeli government doesn’t want.

Though historically Israel has given lip-service to the two-state solution, much of the current far-right coalition favors outright annexation as an alternative, and Netanyahu made clear in his own recent meeting with Trump that, even in the event he deigned to grant Palestine nominal independence, they could never have control over any of their borders.

http://news.antiwar.com/2017/03/12/palestinians-trump-abbas-talk-proves-israel-has-partner-for-peace/