Trump’s Mideast plan starts taking shape

A senior Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs official in the know on Israeli-US relations told Al-Monitor that in recent days Israel has been approached by senior officials in the Trump administration about a possible US policy initiative related to the region and to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Trump’s staff is currently preparing his first official visit to Israel (apparently on May 22), yet these preliminary contacts were exploratory in nature. The US officials emphasized to their Israeli counterparts that no decision has been made yet by Trump’s Middle Eastern team and his associates, including secretaries of the State and Defense departments, head of the National Security Council, and advisers Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt.

According to the Israeli source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the US officials did say expressively that in any case Israeli security interests will be taken care of “as never before.” What concerned the senior Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs official was a request to know Israel’s position on a possible qualified acceptance of parts of the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. In the Israeli source’s view, this request indicates that the Trump administration has been influenced by Arab interlocutors such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who all expressed in similar terms that the Arab Peace Initiative is the only possible basis for regional progress on the Palestinian issue.

A seasoned Middle Eastern expert, who advises Trump’s Middle East team, told Al-Monitor that the Trump administration has three priorities in the Middle East region: the defeat of the Islamic State (IS), a cease-fire arrangement in Syria that sidelines Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a regional agreement on Israeli-Palestinian peace.

According to this adviser, the administration wants to work with the pragmatic Arab coalition of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia on all three efforts. He emphasized that linking President Donald Trump’s interest for a deal on the Israeli-Palestinian issue to other regional issues, such as fighting IS, would be a mistake. These are three distinct goals. Trump has genuine ambitions to outshine all previous US presidents on a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, regardless of his ambitions on the other regional problems.