FOREIGN POLICY/ISRAEL/PALESTINE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP POSITION CHANGES: “U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday [1-25-18] to withhold aid to the Palestinians if they did not pursue peace with Israel, saying they had snubbed the United States by not meeting Vice President Mike Pence during a recent visit.
Trump, speaking after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland said he aimed for peace in the Middle East.
Palestinians shunned Pence’s visit to the region this month after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and vowed to begin moving the U.S. embassy to the city, whose status is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump’s endorsement in December of Israel’s claim to Jerusalem as its capital drew universal condemnation from Arab leaders and criticism around the world. It also broke with decades of U.S. policy that the city’s status must be decided in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians… Washington had already said it would withhold about half the initial aid it planned to give a U.N. agency that serves the Palestinians.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the United States had taken itself ‘off the table’ as a peace mediator since it recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.”
-Steve Holland and Yara Bayoumy, “Trump threatens to pull aid to Palestinians if they don’t pursue peace,” Reuters, Jan. 25, 2018 07:40am