The Aug. 24 top-level Palestinian meeting with US President Donald Trump’s envoys Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, ended on a positive note. So positive, in fact, that suddenly the Palestinian threats of recent days to abandon the US diplomatic channel unless progress was achieved dissolved in a sea of smiles.
Al-Monitor has learned that the only reason for this Palestinian optimism, at least for now, was a personal message conveyed by Trump through Kushner to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. According to the message, the president of the United States was committed to making supreme efforts to broker a historic peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and a detailed plan would soon be formulated setting out Trump’s vision of peace in the Middle East.