Trump dangles Middle East peace plan to limit Jerusalem outcry

USA - When President Donald Trump told the Palestinian president of his intention to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, he assured him a peace plan being put together would please the Palestinians, officials said, in an apparent effort to limit fallout over his break with longtime US policy.

Trump’s phone call to Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, the day before he made his bombshell announcement on Jerusalem, appeared to shed new light on behind-the-scenes efforts by White House advisers to craft a peace blueprint expected to be rolled out in the first half of 2018 but which has now been thrown into doubt because of an angry outcry across the Middle East.

With Palestinians declaring it will be difficult for the United States to act as an honest broker after essentially siding with Israel on one of the central disputes in the conflict, administration officials said they expected a “cooling-off period.”

Trump’s team, led by his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, will press on with development of a plan to serve as the foundation for renewed Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, hoping the furor will blow over and that any pause in diplomatic contacts with the Palestinians will not last long, US officials said.

But amid protests in the Palestinian territories and uncertainty about whether the Palestinians will stay engaged in the peace effort, one US official said the process could still be disrupted. One US official said the Palestinians were in such a weak position that they would ultimately have no choice but to stay involved in US-led peace efforts.

Another argument that Trump’s aides will likely make to Palestinians is that having granted Israel recognition of its claim to Jerusalem, the US leader might now have more leverage for seeking concessions later on from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the US official said.

“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Just what is an Apostle?

Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”

The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!

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Listen to Me, You who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My Law: …I have put My words in your mouth, I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, “you are My people” (Isaiah 51:7,16)