There’s Still Hope for Israeli-Palestinian Peace

U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt, a principal designer of President Donald Trump’s promised Middle East peace plan, resigned last week, having never revealed a word of the mysterious plan or presided over a minute of actual negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. It’s clearer than ever that the administration's rethinking of U.S. Mideast peace policy has been a crushing failure. The question now is how to move beyond it.

There’s a mess to be cleaned up, to be sure, one that was created by the Trump peace team, headed by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, when it smashed the agreed-upon basis for talks by recognizing Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem, without distinguishing between the West and East parts of the city. The team also cut off diplomatic relations with the Palestinians, leaving the U.S. as the only major world power without direct ties to one of the key parties. Indeed, the administration cut off all aid to anything and everything Palestinian, including security forces, health and education programs, and even people-to-people peace programs.