CMEP Bulletin: Israel Embraces President-Elect Trump

CMEP Bulletin: Israel Embraces President-Elect Trump

How Far Will Trump’s Unpredictability Disrupt American Policy on Israel? [Ha’aretz]
On the day after the US presidential election, Foundation for Middle Peace’s Mitchell Plitnick wrote, “The shocking victory of Donald Trump in the American presidential election will reverberate around the world. One place where those reverberations will be felt particularly keenly is Israel. The biggest problem is that no one knows what they will look like. Trump is a true wild card in a way no other incoming president has ever been, especially on foreign policy. He has said a lot of things on the campaign trail, but none of it comes together into any kind of coherent policy, strategy or even a basic direction. We know very little about what he might do.”

Complete List of the Trump Campaign’s Promises to Israel [The Jewish Press]
The Jewish Press has published a list of the pledges that President-Elect Donald Trump made during his presidential campaign. The article features a joint statement from Jason Dov Greenblatt and David Friedman, Co-Chairmen of the Israel Advisory Committee to Donald J. Trump.

In Israel, Pro-Settlement Advocates and Rivals of Two-State Solution Are Emboldened by Trump Victory [Los Angeles Times]
According to journalist Joshua Mitnick, “Israelis who support settlement expansion in the West Bank hailed Donald Trump’s election victory, calling it a milestone that offers Israel’s right-wing government a chance to permanently block a two-state solution with the Palestinians. ‘The victory of Trump is a huge opportunity for Israel to immediately announce that it renounces the idea of establishing Palestine in the heart of the country,’ said Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of the pro-settler Jewish Home party. ‘The era of the Palestinian state is over.’”

Trump Adviser: New President Won’t Force Israeli-Palestinian Peace [Times of Israel]
One of President-Elect Donald Trump’s top advisers says the new administration will try to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but without pushing an agreement on either side. “I think he’s going to support Israel in a way it hasn’t been supported in the Obama administration,” Jason Dov Greenblatt told The Times of Israel, as the dust settled from Trump’s shocking victory hours earlier.

Obama’s Last Chance of Ending Israeli Occupation [Al-Monitor]
Al-Monitor’s Akiva Eldar writes that, “The central question concerning politicians and pundits in Israel and the occupied territories these days is what [happens now that] the US presidential election [is over]. What will happen in the transition period starting Nov. 9 and ending with the changing of the guard at the White House on Jan. 20, 2017? Will President Barack Obama veto the UN Security Council resolution recognizing a Palestinian state, or will he make do with yet another speech rebuking Israel? Or perhaps he will prefer a UN vote condemning the Jewish settlements? Either way, any decision Obama makes will have far-reaching implications for millions of people in the Middle East.”

Click here to read the full Churches for Middle East Peace Bulletin, including links to these stories.