President Trump on Tuesday will visit Bethlehem in the West Bank ,
the next stop on his eight-day overseas trip. He is expected to discuss
a possible peace deal in the Middle East with Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas.
The visit follows Trump's meetings with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he repeatedly expressed optimism for a peace settlement, despite his predecessors' inability to reach a lasting deal.
In a meeting at the White House three weeks ago, Trump called on Abbas
to demand that Palestinian leaders condemn any and all violence against
Israelis, and Abbas spoke out strongly against Israel's occupation of
the West Bank.
The administration has been confronted with thorny diplomatic realities
during Trump's whirlwind overseas tour, specifically his decision to
visit the Western Wall.
A junior U.S. official caused an uproar among many Israeli officials
during a presurvey of the site, when he said that the Western Wall was
not in Israeli territory but "is part of the West Bank."
After the incident, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley
deviated from long-standing U.S. policy by saying the Western Wall is
part of Israel, leading to protest from many Palestinians. Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson, asked about Haley's comments, reiterated traditional U.S. policy, saying, "The wall is part of Jerusalem."
After meeting with Abbas, Trump will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, where he will lay a wreath and deliver brief remarks. It could be an awkward moment for White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who in April was the target of a stinging statement from Yad Vashem over his controversial comparison between Adolf Hitler and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a press briefing.
"Yad Vashem expresses deep concern regarding the inaccurate and
insensitive use of terms related to the Holocaust by the White House
press secretary," according to a statement from the memorial. "His
statements imply a profound lack of knowledge of events of the Second
World War, including the Holocaust. Moreover, they are liable to
strengthen the hands of those whose goal is to distort history."
Spicer repeatedly apologized after the episode.
After the wreath-laying ceremony, Trump will deliver an address at the
Israel Museum to the Israeli people. That follows his address on Sunday
in Saudi Arabia to leaders of Muslim countries, in which he called on
them to "drive out" extremists and terrorists.
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