US Vice President Mike Pence arrives in Israel on Dec. 20. Although the original aim of his visit was to pave the way for presentation of an American peace initiative, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has already announced that Pence is not welcome and senior Palestinians would not meet with him as a result of President Donald Trump’s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The highlight of Pence’s Israel trip will be a visit to the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site and a flashpoint of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
A senior White House official briefing Israeli reporters explained that the Trump administration could not envision any scenario in which the wall “would not be part of the State of Israel” in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. He added that Pence’s visit to the Western Wall, unlike Trump’s May 22 stop, will not be private but an official visit in his role as vice president.
