President Donald Trump has been advised by his inner circle and by former administration officials with experience in the Middle East peace process to stay out of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Everybody told him that both sides are unwilling to make the necessary compromises. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is both unwilling and unable politically, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while possibly willing to compromise for statehood, is politically too weak to make the necessary concessions.
A senior PLO official close to Abbas told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian diplomatic strategy remains to engage positively with US envoy Jason Greenblatt as well as with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. Both Greenblatt and Kushner visited Israel and the West Bank on June 21-22. The Palestinian strategy includes expressing readiness to take part in a regionally backed opening to permanent-status negotiations, while assuming a de facto freeze on Israeli settlement expansion. The Palestinian leadership is conveying to the Trump administration in great detail its positions on all permanent-status issues. There is cautious optimism in Ramallah.