The morning after Israel initiated attacks against Iran in June, US President Donald Trump was asked if he supported the Israeli strikes against Iran. Trump explained, “We, of course, support Israel, obviously, and supported it like nobody has ever supported it.
“Iran should have listened to me when I said – you know, I gave them, I don’t know if you know, but I gave them a 60-day warning and today is day 61. They should now come to the table to make a deal before it’s too late. It will be too late for them. You know, the people I was dealing with are dead, the hardliners.”
As insiders would later explain, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited the White House in February and worked out a joint strategy with Trump on dealing with Iran and its illicit nuclear weapons program.
Netanyahu advocated an immediate strike against Iran, and Trump wanted to allow the diplomatic track to work. The two leaders agreed to allow a 60-day negotiating period, and if a deal could be worked out with Iran, there would be no need for a strike. After 60 days, Trump concluded Iran wasn’t serious about making a deal and gave his support for a strike against Iran.
Trump’s approach to foreign policy has been immensely successful, and its success lies in his willingness to talk to anyone, no matter how malicious their past. Trump has met with despots like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa to work out a deal to bring peace to the world. Trump has balanced his optimism over deals with a realistic approach that cuts negotiations off if he concludes the other side isn’t genuinely interested in a deal.
Applying a balanced approach to the Palestinians
Trump needs to start applying his balanced foreign policy approach to the Palestinians. A deal between Israel and the Palestinians and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the “holy grail” of peace deals. Many presidents have tried and failed to bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and some have quit or refused to even try. Trump has taken multiple stabs at ending this conflict but has yet to successfully bring the conflict to an end.
One of the most significant impediments American presidents have faced in attempts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Palestinian intransigence in their refusal to end support for terrorism. Article XV of Oslo II – The Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement states, “Both sides shall take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism. The Palestinian Police will act systematically against all expressions of violence and terror. The Palestinian Police will arrest and prosecute individuals who are suspected of perpetrating acts of violence and terror.”
Instead of following through on its commitment to prevent acts of terrorism, Congress found, “The Palestinian Authority’s practice of paying salaries to terrorists serving in Israeli prisons, as well as to the families of deceased terrorists, is an incentive to commit acts of terror.”
In response to America’s finding that the PA has incentivized terrorism instead of preventing it through its “pay to slay” program, Trump signed the Taylor Force Act on March 23, 2018. It was passed by Congress earlier that month and requires the slashing of aid to the PA based on its payments to families of terrorists.
Despite the Palestinians supporting terrorism two years earlier, Trump’s “Deal of the Century,” unveiled in 2020, offered Palestinians a demilitarized state on roughly 70% of the West Bank, with fragmented territory connected by corridors.
Gaza would gain humanitarian aid, infrastructure like a port and airport on an artificial island, and a West Bank tunnel link. A $50 billion investment package promised economic growth in tourism, tech, and agriculture. East Jerusalem suburbs would serve as the capital, with refugee compensation but no right of return to Israel. The Palestinians didn’t accept the offer.
Supporting terrorism after committing to prevent it should have been enough to demonstrate to Trump that the Palestinians aren’t serious about peace and ending the conflict. Yet, Trump is still trying to work with PA head Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians to work out a deal. Instead of declaring the Palestinians and the PA a sponsor of terrorism, America has continuously legitimized it as an institution capable of governing the Palestinian people.
In Trump’s 20-point peace plan that ended conflict in Gaza, point nine states that the “‘Board of Peace’ will set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza until the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform program, as outlined in various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal, and can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza.”
Over the past five years, the Palestinians and the PA have refused to implement these reforms and haven’t taken any steps that would lead one to conclude they are capable of reforming themselves.
It has recently been reported that America almost took the necessary steps to ostracize Palestinian leadership, but, at the last minute, decided to offer an undeserved lifeline and continued legitimacy to the PA.
After the Trump administration revealed the Palestinian Authority had misled the American government and continued to pay families of terrorists and its pay to slay program after committing to stop, the Trump administration planned to designate Abbas, his deputy Hussein al-Sheikh, PA Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, then-PA finance minister Omar Bitar, and senior PLO official Ahmad Majdalani as specially designated global terrorists.
These sanctions would have significantly reduced the PA’s ability to operate since foreign governments would risk exposing themselves to secondary sanctions from America.
After being threatened with American sanctions, Abbas fired Bitar, claiming he signed off on the payments without Abbas’s knowledge. Reports suggested that while figures in the State Department had pushed for the sanctions, they were overruled by the White House, which felt that such an aggressive move risked antagonizing the Palestinians.
It is time America stopped coddling the Palestinians out of fear that they will be upset at America’s actions. Until Palestinians, and especially the Palestinian leadership, face sanctions and ostracization by the international community, they will continue to lie and tell the Western world what they want to hear, while supporting terrorism.
An end to the conflict will continue to be impeded by Palestinian intransigence until serious actions against them demonstrate that reform is their only path to survival.
The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, where she enjoys spending time with her family.