Trump also has a cordial relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying early on that he wanted to strengthen America’s relationship with Israel — which is already the U.S.’s largest recipient of foreign aid.
While admonishing Israel in February over Jewish communities being built on Palestinian land, saying that he would like Netanyahu to “hold back on settlements,” Trump also unexpectedly shifted years of U.S. policy when he withheld clear support for an independent Palestine.
This possible endorsement of a one-nation solution to the conflict would be very difficult for both sides. It would either end up being two systems for two peoples, which Palestinians would see as apartheid and unending occupation — or equal rights for all, which would compromise Israel’s Jewish character.
Trump has said he is looking “very, very strongly” at moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the disputed holy city that both Palestinians and Israelis lay claim to.
So for Palestinians, it will be vital that Abbas simply presents an alternate view of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“For us the most important thing in this meeting is that it will allow a Palestinian perspective,” Khatib said. “The current American president is very familiar with the Israeli side and is constantly in touch with the Israeli point of view, but is a stranger to the Palestinian narrative.”
Yossi Mekelberg, an associate fellow of the Middle East and North Africa program at London’s Chatham House think tank, said it is possible that Trump’s well-known unpredictability could be a positive for the Palestinians.
“He’s not interested in details,” he said. “Israelis and Palestinians know all the details. What Trump can contribute is that he is ready to act regardless of not knowing the details, which might do something … in the unpredictable world we live in right now.”
Trump’s close relationship with Netanyahu will not be the only thing the Palestinian Authority leader is up against. Abbas, 82, also faces challenges at home. Palestinians — who are partly governed by militant group Hamas which has ruled the seaside enclave of Gaza since it won an election there in 2006 — are more despondent and divided than ever.
There is widespread disappointment at the lack of a political solution to the Israeli occupation and general malaise brought on by a slowing economy and high unemployment.
The release on Monday of a Hamas political document declaring their recognition of Israel’s 1967 borders — while explicitly not recognizing the “legitimacy of the Zionist entity” — draws attention away from Abbas’ more secular government and undermines the message that he speaks for the Palestinian people as a whole.
Israel has fought three wars with Hamas, which does not recognize its legitimacy as an independent Jewish state. Militant rockets are often fired at Israeli territory. The group rules the desperately poor population of approximately 1.9 million people — 1.3 million of whom are refugees displaced during the establishment of the state of Israel — with an iron fist.
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority is also at odds with Hamas in Gaza, which has been blockaded by the Israelis for years. His security officials regularly crack down on the pockets of the hard-line group in the West Bank.
Kobi Michael, from the Institute for National Security Studies, an Israeli think tank, called the release of the Hamas document “an internal Palestinian game.”
He added: “The pressure is for Hamas to change its policy and position towards Israel. They are not giving up on their armed resistance.”
