“There is no reason there’s not peace between Israel and the Palestinians — none whatsoever,” Trump said in April.
.. The Abbas video is similar to others produced by Israel and shown to U.S. officials in the past, U.S. and Israeli officials said. But this one appeared aimed at discrediting Abbas personally and triggering an “emotional response” from Trump on the eve of his meeting with the aging Palestinian leader, said a senior U.S. official briefed on the meeting.
.. Trump is inexperienced even if he’s not naive, veterans of past peace efforts said. He is now having a “health-care moment,” in which he realizes that something that looked doable on paper turns out to be far more complicated than he first imagined, said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator.
“Who knew it would be so hard and complicated?” Levy joked.
.. “Netanyahu’s game plan is not new — he attempts to shift the focus onto diversions and distractions that he hopes will make the Palestinians look bad and will keep the pressure off him when it comes to offering something on the substance of a peace deal,” Levy said. Hence the Israeli focus on incitement and Palestinian payments to the families of prisoners accused of violence against Israelis, he said.
Palestinian officials claim that many of the arrests are the result of opposition to illegal occupation and that they have a duty to support the families of those jailed.
Two Presidential Candidates Stuck in Time
A little over a week ago, he marked his 100th day in office with a “campaign rally” in Harrisburg, Pa., opening with a tribute to “the wonderful beautiful state of Pennsylvania,” which “carried us to a big beautiful victory on Nov. 8!”
“Does anybody remember who our opponent was?” he asked the crowd, setting off the familiar chant, “Lock her up.”
Nothing in recent history can match the sorry spectacle of a sitting president so desperate for adoration and so indifferent to actual governing that the only satisfaction he can get is from perpetuating the campaign.
.. Yet Mrs. Clinton, a person of greater substance, also seems unable to shake free.
.. Mrs. Clinton was asked about Mr. Trump’s approach to North Korea and Syria, and about women’s rights around the world. Her insights were strained by insinuations against the president, whom she still refers to as “my opponent.”
.. Something is awry with Mrs. Clinton’s strategy if she thinks she is undermining Mr. Trump by volunteering to be the diversion that he clearly wants her to be.
.. But coming from Mrs. Clinton, given her own unforced (but largely unacknowledged) errors in the campaign, such accusations can sound merely like excuses. And they play into Mr. Trump’s obvious ambition to keep last year’s campaign front and center.
Trump triples down on attack on judge’s ethnicity
Pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper, Trump repeated his claim that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel’s Mexican heritage creates “an inherent conflict of interest.”
Story Continued Below“Jake, I’m building a wall. OK? I’m building a wall. I’m trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico’s fine,” Trump said.
“But he’s an American,” Tapper responded.
“He’s of Mexican heritage,” Trump said. “And he’s very proud of it, as I am of where I come from.”
“But he’s an American,” Tapper reiterated. “You keep talking about it’s a conflict of interest because of Mexico.”
Later in the extended back-and-forth on the issue, the CNN host asked Trump whether his assertion that Curiel’s heritage makes him unable to do his job is “the definition of racism.” Trump said it was not.