Trump Administration Offers ‘Deal of the Century’

The Trump administration has again ratcheted up pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to consider its peace plan. In the latest action, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced Monday that the U.S. will close the Palestine Liberation Office (PLO) in Washington, D.C., citing the PA’s refusal to negotiate.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley said, during a press conference at the United Nations last week, that peace is possible only if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will “come to the table.”

Haley challenged Abbas to consider the peace proposal that the Trump administration is calling “the deal of the century.” It is expected to be unveiled after the U.S. mid-term elections.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to hear the plan developed by Trump advisors Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, Haley said, but Abbas refuses to participate or recognize the U.S. as a peace broker.

“The Palestinian people should be frustrated with Abbas,” Haley said. “He is not dealing with Hamas, he is not doing things to better (the situation for) the Palestinian people.”

These statements by Haley and Bolton came in the wake of the U.S. State Department halting funding the previous week to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a body created to aid Palestinians who left their homes after Israel became a nation in 1948. The termination of this aid is a result, as the Jewish Policy Center website says, of UNRWA seeking to “maintain the violent status quo in the Middle East, even if it means turning a blind eye to terror.”

Both Israelis and Palestinians remain skeptical that peace between them is imminent.