ISRAEL/PALESTINE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s decision Wednesday [12-13-17] to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital could temporarily derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, two senior White House officials acknowledged after Trump’s speech…
That ‘derailment’ was a cost the White House was prepared to accept to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise. And two senior White House officials said they felt making the announcement now — before Israelis and Palestinians have reached the negotiating table — would help mitigate the damage to the peace process…
Trump’s decision Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and direct the State Department to begin moving the embassy there comes after months during which Trump’s peace team has focused on meeting with Israelis and Palestinians, gathering ideas and building relationships. Now, the officials said, they are in the midst of drafting a tentative peace accord, but have yet to seek to draw both sides back to the negotiating table.
But the move left Palestinian officials fuming, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his chief negotiator Saeb Erakat blasting the US decision and claiming Trump’s move ‘disqualified’ the US from mediating the peace process.
The White House officials expressed hope that the Trump administration has built enough trust with the Palestinians to push through the current friction, but could not say when they believed the relationship would be patched up.”
-Elise Labott and Jeremy Diamond, “White House officials: Jerusalem decision could hurt peace process,” CNN Politics, Dec. 7, 2017 07:33am