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U.S. Pursuing a Strategy of Quiet Diplomacy on Israeli-Palestinian Peace
(Daily Beast) Benny Avni - Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner and international negotiator Jason Greenblatt do their best not to discuss the substance of their talks on promoting a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians, saying they would rather conduct quiet diplomacy. Dani Dayan, Israel's consul general in New York, commended Kushner's slow, quiet approach. "Past American administrations jumped into the peace process pool before checking if there's any water in it; we jumped after them and cracked our heads." Dayan said that rather than seeking a final deal to end the dispute once and for all, Kushner should seek smaller victories. Dayan cited a deal reached recently about water-sharing between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "You won't get a Peace Nobel for things like that, but they may be more achievable" and helpful. A White House official close to the negotiations noted that Abbas didn't pull out of the talks, which indicates that they are substantial after all. Past administrations "put process ahead of results. It was about a road map, timelines, impositions of deadlines," the official said, adding that past diplomacy "suffered from a constant effort to show some achievement," which doomed it to failure as the parties pushed back against public statements in Washington.