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.

On the Israeli side, there is greater concern with the US administration’s possible diplomatic moves. A senior Israeli ambassador currently engaged with policy planning at the Foreign Ministry told Al-Monitor that the Netanyahu government has a very clear strategy. According to this official, Israel is not interested in a launch of the peace process by Washington. Netanyahu is ready to participate in a meeting with Trump, Abbas and other Arab leaders. On the other hand, a type of Madrid 2 Conference in Washington is rejected at the highest Israeli levels, as is any other American move that could endanger the stability of the current right-wing coalition. The official added that Israel’s strategy will be a mixture of positive rhetoric and moves toward Trump’s policies with policy conditions that will make it difficult if not impossible for the Palestinians to accept such a negotiation process.

Israel has conveyed to Greenblatt that the prime minister is ready to participate in a regional strategy meeting in Washington chaired by Trump and also to meet with Abbas. The participation in such a meeting is conditioned on the Palestinian Authority's taking action to stop incitement to violence and to halt all payments to the families of terrorists and prisoners in Israel. According to the senior Israeli official, the government is convinced that Abbas will not stop the payments to the Palestinian families, as it affects almost a quarter of the Palestinian population.