(Weekly Standard) Elliott Abrams - Benjamin Netanyahu, for eight years scorned and insulted by the Obama administration, found himself warmly embraced in the Trump White House last week. No more name-calling, no more deliberate "daylight" between Israeli and American positions, no more abandonment of Israel at the UN. This was the central achievement of the Netanyahu visit: to put Israeli-American relations back where they were in the George W. Bush administration. At least since Bill Clinton, a "two-state solution" has been the insistent American goal, but where has it gotten us - or the Israelis and Palestinians? Trump is focusing instead on the goal, which is peace, and saying any road that gets us all there can work for him if it can work for the parties. Trump is challenging the conventional wisdom and asking if there is a better path to peace. The writer, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration.
2017-02-20 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive