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Israel wants Trump to consider alternative approach in peace process

Israeli Defense Minister Liberman advocates a regional arrangement for peace with the Palestinians, instead of the as-yet unsuccessful bilateral approach.

During a weekly meeting with the political party he chairs, Yisrael Beiteinu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman called upon US President Donald Trump’s advisor on Israel, Jason Greenblatt, to end efforts aimed at a bilateral peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

“I doubt if we can advance anything, let alone a historic or far-reaching agreement,” Liberman said, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Greenblatt, tweeted on Sunday night that he was “headed back to Israel and the Palestinian Territories to continue our efforts to try to achieve a lasting peace.”

At Monday’s meeting, Liberman argued against a bilateral peace process by pointing to the repeated failed attempts using this approach.

“Therefore we call on the American envoy to ditch the bilateral track and instead invest all efforts into a regional arrangement,” Liberman continued.

“If all the energy is invested in normalizing ties between Israel and the Arab states, the Palestinians and all others will have no choice but to join the initiative.”

Trump previously expressed openness and support to the idea of a regional peace approach, during his meeting earlier this year with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC.

Last month, a report suggested that Trump was thinking of abandoning the bilateral peace initiative between Israel and the PA altogether, after a series of apparently disappointing meetings between his advisers and PA officials.

By: World Israel News Staff