- Israel Wants Trump to Stop Palestinian Payments to Prisoners and Families of "Martyrs" - William Booth
Palestinian authorities have been paying prisoners for years, but the issue is now front and center as Israel's government and its supporters in Congress are pressing the Trump administration to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority unless the payments stop. "Fund peace, not murder," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this month.
"Aid provided by the donor countries to the Palestinian Authority every year ends up funding terrorists who murdered innocent Israelis," said Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. "This is official Palestinian blood money, rewarding terrorists who kill Jews."
Yossi Kuperwasser, a former top intelligence officer and Israeli army general, who now works as a scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said the Palestinian government allocates $300 million a year for these payments, which is more than 20% of the annual foreign aid given to the government by all donors. Kuperwasser said that it's common-sensical that stopping payments to Palestinians who attack Israelis would reduce terror assaults. (Washington Post)
Netanyahu: Palestinians Refuse to Agree to a Jewish State within Any Borders
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez Sanz on Thursday that the reason peace has not been achieved in the conflict with the Palestinians is, and remains, the Palestinian refusal to agree to the existence of the state of the Jewish People within any borders whatsoever. He also called on Costa Rica to change its voting pattern at the UN and international organizations on issues relating to Israel. (Prime Minister's Office)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez Sanz on Thursday that the reason peace has not been achieved in the conflict with the Palestinians is, and remains, the Palestinian refusal to agree to the existence of the state of the Jewish People within any borders whatsoever. He also called on Costa Rica to change its voting pattern at the UN and international organizations on issues relating to Israel. (Prime Minister's Office)
- The U.S. Relies on Israel for Indispensable Intelligence - Jonathan S. Tobin
The controversy over whether President Trump revealed classified intelligence to the Russians highlights the fact that Israel is an inestimable strategic asset to America, its ally. Throughout recent decades, Americans have been able to draw upon Israel's extensive intelligence network throughout the region, as well as take advantage of Israel's expertise in designing and perfecting weapon systems.
With Iran seeking regional hegemony, and with radical Islamists taking up the vacuum left by the collapse of Syria and the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, the U.S. finds itself increasingly in need of Israeli intelligence. Those who cling to the fallacy that Israel is a burden on U.S. interests need to realize that without its help, America is often flying blind in the Middle East. (National Review)
- A Trump Doctrine for the Middle East? - Michael Doran
President Barack Obama embraced Iranian ascendancy with open arms. He dropped efforts to contain Iran because he was convinced that recognition of an Iranian sphere of influence would persuade Tehran to function as a partner in stabilizing Iraq and Syria. This was a miscalculation, and it led directly to the Russian-Iranian military alliance in Syria.
It is false that U.S. support for our longtime friends in the Middle East is a cause of instability, and that by distancing ourselves from them while reaching out to our enemies we can make the world a safer place. (It's an even worse fallacy to imagine that we can create a Middle East without enemies.) And it's just as wrong to assume we can cleverly pull Russia away from Iran in Syria. The tensions between them are insignificant compared with their shared interest in propping up the Bashar al-Assad regime and eroding American influence.
Finally, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not the center of gravity in the Middle East, nor is it ripe for solution. If Mr. Trump recognizes these fallacies, he will be far ahead of the game. The writer, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, was a senior director at the National Security Council in the George W. Bush administration. (New York Times)
President Trump's Helicopter Ride to Jerusalem - Raphael Ahren interviews Michael Oren
Donald Trump has never been to Israel. After landing Monday at Ben-Gurion Airport, he is scheduled to fly via helicopter to Jerusalem. Deputy Minister Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said that Trump's seeing Israel and its geographical dimensions for the first time with his own eyes will likely increase the president's appreciation of the country's security concerns.
"Seeing the actual dimension of Israel is shocking to people. They understand our security concerns much more. 'Wow, this place is tiny. Wait a minute, that's the West Bank, and that's the sea? Let me get this straight: that's all there is of Israel?' It's literally that moment, that holy cow moment. I've seen it again and again." (Times of Israel)
Donald Trump has never been to Israel. After landing Monday at Ben-Gurion Airport, he is scheduled to fly via helicopter to Jerusalem. Deputy Minister Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said that Trump's seeing Israel and its geographical dimensions for the first time with his own eyes will likely increase the president's appreciation of the country's security concerns.
"Seeing the actual dimension of Israel is shocking to people. They understand our security concerns much more. 'Wow, this place is tiny. Wait a minute, that's the West Bank, and that's the sea? Let me get this straight: that's all there is of Israel?' It's literally that moment, that holy cow moment. I've seen it again and again." (Times of Israel)
- No Breakthrough for Peace with Abbas - Lior Akerman
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas inherited from his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, an authority that is completely malfunctioning. Nothing has changed over the past 20 years; the PA still fully relies on contributions from other countries and on Israel's government for electricity and transportation infrastructure. During all these years, the PA has never developed any industry and almost every Palestinian family depends on Israeli employers for its livelihood.
The most likely scenario is that Abbas will do nothing remarkable before disappearing into the annals of history. We should hope that the next PA leader will revolutionize the Palestinian community, be willing to support a peace settlement that Israel can also live with, and forgo fantasies and unrealistic aspirations. The writer is a former brigadier-general who served as a division head in the Israel Security Agency. (Jerusalem Post)
The Changing Reality of Arab-Israeli Ties - Evelyn Gordon (Commentary)
- The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have grown tired of having their relationship with Israel held hostage to the Palestinian problem, and are discussing a proposal to normalize certain types of commercial relations with Israel in exchange for Israeli gestures toward the Palestinians.
- In exchange for Israel freezing settlement construction in "certain areas" of the West Bank and relaxing its blockade of Gaza, the Arabs would establish direct telecommunication links with Israel, let Israeli aircraft overfly their countries, lift certain trade restrictions and perhaps grant visas to Israeli athletes and businessmen.
- Even if the proposal goes nowhere, these details are significant. They show that Arab leaders are no longer willing to give the Palestinians (or Syria) a veto over their relations with Israel.
- The last time Arab states proposed normalization with Israel (in the Saudi-sponsored Arab Peace Initiative of 2002), they conditioned it on Israel signing final-status agreements with both the Palestinians and Syria and withdrawing completely to the 1949 armistice lines.
- The very fact that this proposal is being openly discussed shows that Arab-Israeli relations are thawing at a faster pace than anyone would have predicted a few years ago.
[h=1]Trump heads for Israel, and a wary welcome by the once adoring right wing[/h]
Ben Manson 3 hours ago
President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel (not pictured) at a joint press conference in the East Room of the White House on Feb. 15, 2017. (Photo: Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
As a candidate and president-elect, Donald Trump was widely popular in Israel, especially on the right. For the first time, it seemed, an American president would be unreservedly sympathetic to the demands of West Bank settlers and supportive of its ambitions.
Trump’s pointed rhetoric toward Iran and his sharp criticism of the Iranian nuclear deal, the appointment of the right-wing lawyer David Friedman as ambassador to Israel, and the presence by his side of his Orthodox Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were believed to assure that he would look the other way when it came to the ever-controversial “settler agenda” for territorial expansion. A poll taken not long after the election showed that 83 percent of Israelis considered Trump pro-Israel. (In contrast, 63 percent said that Barack Obama was the worst president for Israel in the past 30 years.)
That was then.
Now, as Israel prepares to receive Trump on his first trip abroad as president, things look very different. Just as Trump has upended political norms and expectations in Washington, he has confounded the expectations of much of the Israeli public and political establishment. His brash unpredictability has earned him the sobriquet “Mr. Balagan” — a word that translates roughly to “hot mess” — bestowed in an op-ed by the journalist Nadav Eyal.
Last fall’s election results led to the expectation (or, on the left, the fear) of free rein for Israel’s right-wing government to expand settlements on Palestinian territory in the West Bank and annex existing ones to Israel. In the first several months after the election, Israel announced plans for more than 5,000 new homes on the West Bank. And Trump was widely expected to be the first American president to live up to his campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a gesture toward recognizing Israel’s claim to the whole of Jerusalem. This, in turn, would sideline the aspirations of Palestinians to establish a state in the West Bank, with its capital in East Jerusalem.
President Trump listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at their joint news conference on Feb. 15. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)
But Trump’s remark to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during the latter’s visit to Washington in February, that “I’d like to see you hold back on settlements a little bit,” came as a surprise — although the administration hasn’t formally articulated a settlements policy.
Naftali Bennett, the education minister in Netanyahu’s government, expressed his disappointment at a meeting of his far-right Habayit Hayehudi party. “During the campaign, [Trump] often talked in praise of settling throughout the Land of Israel and about moving the [American] embassy to Jerusalem,” Bennett said. “From his election to now, his tune has changed, and the impetus behind the change is not entirely clear.”
And in the weeks leading up to the visit, a series of diplomatic disagreements and misunderstandings have ramped up tensions. One flashpoint was a dispute about whether Trump would be accompanied by an Israeli politician on his visit to the Western Wall, a request by Netanyahu to which the government attached considerable symbolic importance. But the U.S., not wishing to send a signal that could be interpreted as endorsing Israel’s claim to the holy site, rejected the idea. A heated argument about whether Trump would give a speech at Masada, an ancient military fortress that is a national symbol of the historic connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, resulted in changing the venue to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man passes by a Jerusalem billboard welcoming President Trump, who will pay a two-day visit to Israel and West Bank on May 22 and 23. (Photo: Oded Balilty/AP)
The Israeli government has been downplaying the tensions. Trump’s unpredictable temperament has Israeli politicians on both sides worried about an unintended slight causing a serious rift between the two countries.
Then there was the stunning debacle of Trump’s careless blurting of top-secret Israeli intelligence to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister. Israel’s spy agencies were reported to be outraged and horrified over the blunder, which they feared could endanger an Israeli agent operating in ISIS territory. Officially, the Israeli government has sidestepped the issue. It is telling that while most newspapers put it on the front page, Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today) — often considered a mouthpiece of the center-right Likud party, supported by the casino magnate and Trump backer Sheldon Adelson — buried the story in its back pages.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, President Trump and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak at a meeting in the Oval Office on May 10. (Photo: Alexander Shcherbak/Tass via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Israeli left is feeling notably less apocalyptic than it did four months ago. One reason was the apparent shift in Trump’s attitude toward Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. With so much instability in the region, the plight of the Palestinians has become a less salient issue for neighboring Arab states, reducing international pressure on Israel to move toward a permanent peace. In addition, Abbas is 82 years old and unpopular among Palestinians; commentators have been discussing a succession crisis for years. But by inviting him to the White House earlier this month, Trump bolstered Abbas and made him more relevant, even if the American president’s promise of a deal within a year turns out to be no more fruitful than all the peace initiatives that preceded it.
Still, the Israeli right took notice when national security adviser H.R. McMaster announced that Trump would affirm his commitment to “self-determination for the Palestinians” during his visit. It awakened fears that the Trump administration was succumbing to what the right views as the fallacy of treating the Palestinian leadership as a potential partner for peace — an idea the right vehemently rejects.
Some elements on the left, meanwhile, are treating Trump’s visit as an occasion to mobilize Israelis around renewing the peace process. The nonpartisan grass-roots organization Darkenu (“Our Way”) has organized a campaign to unite the majority of Israelis who favor a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to pressure Netanyahu’s government to cooperate with Trump on what the president has called “the ultimate deal.” The campaign, which has posted more than 100 billboards in Hebrew throughout Israel, is rooted in the conviction that Trump is a pragmatic negotiator who won’t sell out Israeli interests.
President Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on May 3. Trump welcomed Abbas as the U.S. president weighs how to approach a Middle East conflict that has eluded resolution for seven decades. (Photo: Olivier Douliery/Pool via Bloomberg)
Polly Bronstein, CEO of Darkenu, said in an email: “President Trump has reawakened the political discourse and the hope that Israel will re-enter negotiations in order to achieve a deal. The pragmatic approach that requires responsibility from both sides and does not point an accusing finger at Israel may be the approach that will succeed. We call on the prime minister and the Knesset to say YES to a political settlement and to separate from the Palestinians! ”
In fact, there are some on the left who — with appropriate caution and caveats —think Trump’s ignorance and belligerence may be an advantage because his desire to make a deal is fueled by self-interest and egotism rather than just good intentions, which haven’t been notably productive in the region. Journalist Orly Azoulay wrote last week:
“His predecessors had deep knowledge: Bill Clinton was able to draw every alley in Jerusalem on a napkin to indicate where Israeli sovereignty will begin and end in a future agreement. Barack Obama thoroughly understood the Israeli anxieties and the Palestinian aspirations. George W. Bush knew what he was talking about too. They all failed when they reached the main obstacle called the 1967 borders.
“Trump is running a White House that has spiraled out of control, where there is a mixture of madness and chaos, but he stands tall when it comes to the ultimate deal he wants to achieve between Israel and the Palestinians. Perhaps in the place where the experts have crashed, the man who knows nothing about anything will manage to do something with the tricks of a businessman who hates fussy arguments and whines about deprivation.”
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on May 19, prior to his departure on his first overseas trip. (Photo: Alex Brandon/AP)
Although self-reliance is central to the Israeli ethos, Israelis also recognize the indispensable role that American support in plays protecting the nation from hostile neighbors and international censure. Now their fate, like it or not, is at least partly in the hands of a political amateur who has, at least rhetorically, laid waste to decades of American foreign policy in many parts of the world. The Israeli public has watched this drama unfold from a distance. But now it is coming right to their doorstep, and they can only wait, with varying degrees of hope and apprehension, for the next eruption from the mercurial Mr. Balagan.
Ben Manson is a freelance journalist in Tel Aviv.
_____
Ben Manson 3 hours ago
As a candidate and president-elect, Donald Trump was widely popular in Israel, especially on the right. For the first time, it seemed, an American president would be unreservedly sympathetic to the demands of West Bank settlers and supportive of its ambitions.
Trump’s pointed rhetoric toward Iran and his sharp criticism of the Iranian nuclear deal, the appointment of the right-wing lawyer David Friedman as ambassador to Israel, and the presence by his side of his Orthodox Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were believed to assure that he would look the other way when it came to the ever-controversial “settler agenda” for territorial expansion. A poll taken not long after the election showed that 83 percent of Israelis considered Trump pro-Israel. (In contrast, 63 percent said that Barack Obama was the worst president for Israel in the past 30 years.)
That was then.
Now, as Israel prepares to receive Trump on his first trip abroad as president, things look very different. Just as Trump has upended political norms and expectations in Washington, he has confounded the expectations of much of the Israeli public and political establishment. His brash unpredictability has earned him the sobriquet “Mr. Balagan” — a word that translates roughly to “hot mess” — bestowed in an op-ed by the journalist Nadav Eyal.
Last fall’s election results led to the expectation (or, on the left, the fear) of free rein for Israel’s right-wing government to expand settlements on Palestinian territory in the West Bank and annex existing ones to Israel. In the first several months after the election, Israel announced plans for more than 5,000 new homes on the West Bank. And Trump was widely expected to be the first American president to live up to his campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a gesture toward recognizing Israel’s claim to the whole of Jerusalem. This, in turn, would sideline the aspirations of Palestinians to establish a state in the West Bank, with its capital in East Jerusalem.
But Trump’s remark to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during the latter’s visit to Washington in February, that “I’d like to see you hold back on settlements a little bit,” came as a surprise — although the administration hasn’t formally articulated a settlements policy.
Naftali Bennett, the education minister in Netanyahu’s government, expressed his disappointment at a meeting of his far-right Habayit Hayehudi party. “During the campaign, [Trump] often talked in praise of settling throughout the Land of Israel and about moving the [American] embassy to Jerusalem,” Bennett said. “From his election to now, his tune has changed, and the impetus behind the change is not entirely clear.”
And in the weeks leading up to the visit, a series of diplomatic disagreements and misunderstandings have ramped up tensions. One flashpoint was a dispute about whether Trump would be accompanied by an Israeli politician on his visit to the Western Wall, a request by Netanyahu to which the government attached considerable symbolic importance. But the U.S., not wishing to send a signal that could be interpreted as endorsing Israel’s claim to the holy site, rejected the idea. A heated argument about whether Trump would give a speech at Masada, an ancient military fortress that is a national symbol of the historic connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, resulted in changing the venue to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
The Israeli government has been downplaying the tensions. Trump’s unpredictable temperament has Israeli politicians on both sides worried about an unintended slight causing a serious rift between the two countries.
Then there was the stunning debacle of Trump’s careless blurting of top-secret Israeli intelligence to the Russian ambassador and foreign minister. Israel’s spy agencies were reported to be outraged and horrified over the blunder, which they feared could endanger an Israeli agent operating in ISIS territory. Officially, the Israeli government has sidestepped the issue. It is telling that while most newspapers put it on the front page, Yisrael Hayom (Israel Today) — often considered a mouthpiece of the center-right Likud party, supported by the casino magnate and Trump backer Sheldon Adelson — buried the story in its back pages.
Meanwhile, the Israeli left is feeling notably less apocalyptic than it did four months ago. One reason was the apparent shift in Trump’s attitude toward Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. With so much instability in the region, the plight of the Palestinians has become a less salient issue for neighboring Arab states, reducing international pressure on Israel to move toward a permanent peace. In addition, Abbas is 82 years old and unpopular among Palestinians; commentators have been discussing a succession crisis for years. But by inviting him to the White House earlier this month, Trump bolstered Abbas and made him more relevant, even if the American president’s promise of a deal within a year turns out to be no more fruitful than all the peace initiatives that preceded it.
Still, the Israeli right took notice when national security adviser H.R. McMaster announced that Trump would affirm his commitment to “self-determination for the Palestinians” during his visit. It awakened fears that the Trump administration was succumbing to what the right views as the fallacy of treating the Palestinian leadership as a potential partner for peace — an idea the right vehemently rejects.
Some elements on the left, meanwhile, are treating Trump’s visit as an occasion to mobilize Israelis around renewing the peace process. The nonpartisan grass-roots organization Darkenu (“Our Way”) has organized a campaign to unite the majority of Israelis who favor a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to pressure Netanyahu’s government to cooperate with Trump on what the president has called “the ultimate deal.” The campaign, which has posted more than 100 billboards in Hebrew throughout Israel, is rooted in the conviction that Trump is a pragmatic negotiator who won’t sell out Israeli interests.
Polly Bronstein, CEO of Darkenu, said in an email: “President Trump has reawakened the political discourse and the hope that Israel will re-enter negotiations in order to achieve a deal. The pragmatic approach that requires responsibility from both sides and does not point an accusing finger at Israel may be the approach that will succeed. We call on the prime minister and the Knesset to say YES to a political settlement and to separate from the Palestinians! ”
In fact, there are some on the left who — with appropriate caution and caveats —think Trump’s ignorance and belligerence may be an advantage because his desire to make a deal is fueled by self-interest and egotism rather than just good intentions, which haven’t been notably productive in the region. Journalist Orly Azoulay wrote last week:
“His predecessors had deep knowledge: Bill Clinton was able to draw every alley in Jerusalem on a napkin to indicate where Israeli sovereignty will begin and end in a future agreement. Barack Obama thoroughly understood the Israeli anxieties and the Palestinian aspirations. George W. Bush knew what he was talking about too. They all failed when they reached the main obstacle called the 1967 borders.
“Trump is running a White House that has spiraled out of control, where there is a mixture of madness and chaos, but he stands tall when it comes to the ultimate deal he wants to achieve between Israel and the Palestinians. Perhaps in the place where the experts have crashed, the man who knows nothing about anything will manage to do something with the tricks of a businessman who hates fussy arguments and whines about deprivation.”
Although self-reliance is central to the Israeli ethos, Israelis also recognize the indispensable role that American support in plays protecting the nation from hostile neighbors and international censure. Now their fate, like it or not, is at least partly in the hands of a political amateur who has, at least rhetorically, laid waste to decades of American foreign policy in many parts of the world. The Israeli public has watched this drama unfold from a distance. But now it is coming right to their doorstep, and they can only wait, with varying degrees of hope and apprehension, for the next eruption from the mercurial Mr. Balagan.
Ben Manson is a freelance journalist in Tel Aviv.
_____
Abbas probably is, like Arafat definitely was, independently wealthy because he's paid by Iran to wage war against Israel. He lives in luxury while his people live in a dysfunctional chaos, and if he makes peace he'd have to find a real job or he's a dead man
this would be a big first step, it's takes bold leadership and bold moves
the cheap words of a do nothing done nothing community organizer accomplished nothing
it is what it is, the proof is in the pudding
but Trump does like
and pussy, and he fires fucking cunts every day whoop whoop whoop
[h=1]Fuming Netanyahu Orders Ministers to Attend Trump's Reception After Most Refuse to Show Up[/h]
Ministers didn't want to go after they found out they won't even shake hands with Trump ■ Netanyahu dismisses cabinet meeting in a rage
Barak Ravid
14:01
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuhas required all cabinet ministers to attend the reception ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday. A senior Israeli official said that Netanyahu issued his instructions after finding out that most ministers were not planning on attending the event.
>> Get all updates on Israel, Trump and the Middle East: Download our free App, and Subscribe >>
[h=2]Related Articles[/h]
[h=3]Donald Trump's Visit to Israel: Everything You Need to Know[/h]
During a Sunday meeting of coalition heads, Netanyahu was notified that there would be a sparse attendance of ministers at the reception and that most party heads wouldn't participate in it. Netanyahu was furious and blew up the meeting, a senior official who attended the meeting said. Immediately afterwards, the Prime Minister's Bureau issued an instruction to all government ministers according to which they must participate in the airport reception.
A timetable of Trump's visit to Israel and the Palestinian AuthorityOver the last two weeks the plans for Trump's reception at Ben-Gurion Airport have seen many changes. The first plans called for a long ceremony, which included speeches and handshakes with all cabinet ministers and other senior state officials who would welcome Trump on the tarmac. But the plans were cut per the White House's request, which noted that they wanted the reception to be as short as possible due to the warm weather and to include only the two countries' anthems, handshakes between Trump and Netanyahu, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, as well as a guard of honor.
In light of those changes, the ministers were at first disinvited from the reception. However, on Saturday evening the plans changed again, and the ministers were informed that they are in fact invited, but that they must arrive two and a half hours in advance and that they will have to undergo a security check. In addition, they will only view the ceremony from the sidelines and will not shake hands with Trump. The Foreign Ministry told the ministers that attendance was not mandatory.
As a result, most ministers said they will not attend.
Air Force One is expected to land Monday afternoon at Ben-Gurion airport after departing from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Trump will be received at the airport by an Israeli delegation at 12:15 P.M, and will then proceed to the President's Residence in Jerusalem.
At 6 P.M., Trump will meet with Netanyahu at Jerusalem's King David Hotel. The prime minister and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, will host the president and First Lady Melania Trump for dinner at the Prime Minister's Residence at 7:30 P.M.
On Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to visit Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum and memorial. He will give a speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem at 2 P.M.
The U.S. president's plane will take off at 4 P.M. to continue on to Europe.
Another engagement not listed on the Prime Minister's Office schedule is Trump's trip across the 1967 border to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where he is expected to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Ministers didn't want to go after they found out they won't even shake hands with Trump ■ Netanyahu dismisses cabinet meeting in a rage
Barak Ravid
14:01
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuhas required all cabinet ministers to attend the reception ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday. A senior Israeli official said that Netanyahu issued his instructions after finding out that most ministers were not planning on attending the event.
[h=2]Related Articles[/h]
[h=3]Donald Trump's Visit to Israel: Everything You Need to Know[/h]During a Sunday meeting of coalition heads, Netanyahu was notified that there would be a sparse attendance of ministers at the reception and that most party heads wouldn't participate in it. Netanyahu was furious and blew up the meeting, a senior official who attended the meeting said. Immediately afterwards, the Prime Minister's Bureau issued an instruction to all government ministers according to which they must participate in the airport reception.
As a result, most ministers said they will not attend.
At 6 P.M., Trump will meet with Netanyahu at Jerusalem's King David Hotel. The prime minister and his wife, Sara Netanyahu, will host the president and First Lady Melania Trump for dinner at the Prime Minister's Residence at 7:30 P.M.
On Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to visit Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum and memorial. He will give a speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem at 2 P.M.
The U.S. president's plane will take off at 4 P.M. to continue on to Europe.
Another engagement not listed on the Prime Minister's Office schedule is Trump's trip across the 1967 border to the West Bank city of Bethlehem, where he is expected to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
[h=2]No sitting US president has ever visited the Western Wall as US policy maintains that the final status of Jerusalem has yet to be resolved in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.[/h]
On Monday, Trump will visit the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.
On Monday, Trump will visit the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City.
US President Donald Trump is scheduled to land at Ben-Gurion Airport on Monday to spend around 28 hours of his nine-day foreign tour in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Arriving from Saudi Arabia at approximately 12:15 p.m., Trump will fly by helicopter from Ben-Gurion to Jerusalem where he is scheduled to meet with President Reuven Rivlin at 1 p.m. at his official residence on Hanasi Street.
Arriving from Saudi Arabia at approximately 12:15 p.m., Trump will fly by helicopter from Ben-Gurion to Jerusalem where he is scheduled to meet with President Reuven Rivlin at 1 p.m. at his official residence on Hanasi Street.
At 6 p.m., Trump is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the King David Hotel, where the US president is staying in the rocket-resistant Presidential Suite. The meeting will be followed by dinner at 7:30 p.m. with the prime minister, his wife, Sara, and first lady Melania Trump at the prime minister’s official residence.
A separate dinner for Trump’s entourage and Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, will be held at the King David Hotel at 8 p.m.
A separate dinner for Trump’s entourage and Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, will be held at the King David Hotel at 8 p.m.
On Tuesday morning, the president is expected to travel to Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas where he will “urge Palestinian leaders to take productive steps toward peace,” according to the White House website.
While Palestinian officials have not released an official schedule, Trump is expected to meet with Abbas at the Bethlehem governor’s office and may visit the Church of the Nativity.
At 1 p.m., there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and then Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech at the Israel Museum at 2 p.m. “celebrating the unique history of Israel and of the Jewish people,” according to the White House website.
At 4 p.m., the US president will take off for the next leg of his journey, Italy and the Vatican.
While Palestinian officials have not released an official schedule, Trump is expected to meet with Abbas at the Bethlehem governor’s office and may visit the Church of the Nativity.
At 1 p.m., there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and then Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech at the Israel Museum at 2 p.m. “celebrating the unique history of Israel and of the Jewish people,” according to the White House website.
At 4 p.m., the US president will take off for the next leg of his journey, Italy and the Vatican.
+5
MAN OF THE HOUR: President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner (center) received praise from onstage from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
+5
When President Donald Trump was asked to respond to reports of rising antisemitism in the U.S., he brought up his Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner (right) and his daughter Ivanka Trump (left), who converted to her husband's faith
.
