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Kushner and Greenblatt arrive in Israel to restart peace process
Top White House aides visit Israel this week as part of US efforts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
According to the White House, the arrival of US envoy Jason Greenblatt and White House Special Adviser Jared Kushner will reinforce the fact that President Trump sees the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as a “top priority” and that Trump “strongly believes that peace is possible”.
Commenting on the visit, a White House official said: “It is important to remember that forging a historic peace agreement will take time and to the extent that there is progress, there are likely to be many visits by both Mr Kushner and Mr Greenblatt…to the region and possibly many trips by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to Washington D.C.”
The official added that US efforts to “advance direct, bilateral negotiations” would be accompanied by plans to “communicate with the relevant constituencies throughout the region”.
On Tuesday, Greenblatt will meet PLO Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat, Palestinian Intelligence Chief Majed Faraj and economic advisor to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, Muhammad Mustafa. Greenblatt will also meet Prime Minister Netanyahu’s advisors in Jerusalem, led by Isaac Molho.
These meetings will take place in preparation for further meetings on Wednesday held between Kushner, who arrives tomorrow, Netanyahu and Abbas.
Yesterday, Greenblatt paid a visit to the family of Hadas Malka who was killed in a terror attack in the Old City on Friday. Greenblatt wrote on twitter: “She was murdered by terrorists. This violence is intolerable!”
In a written statement, Greenblatt added that “incidents such as this underscore why it is vital to realise President Trump’s vision of a Middle East free from the threats of terrorism and extremism”.
In a visit to Israel in May, Trump repeated his determination to secure a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians and also expressed a desire to “build a coalition of partners who share the aim of stamping out extremism and violence”.
The last round of bilateral negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians took place in 2014 under the auspices of former Secretary of State John Kerry.