TIMES OF ISRAEL
Ever unpredictable, Trump throws Mahmoud Abbas a lifeline
by Avi Issacharoff
March 11, 2017

US President Donald Trump’s phone conversation Friday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during which the PA chief was invited to visit to the White House in the near future, has produced considerable optimism in Ramallah. The American president, whom Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu anticipated would be far more supportive of Israel than his predecessor Barak Obama, went out of his way in the call to leave Abbas feeling upbeat, PA officials said Saturday…Palestinian officials have held lower-level talks with officials in the new administration in recent weeks, sources in Ramallah said at the weekend, and concluded that Trump neither wants to impose terms of his own nor to have either one of the sides seek to impose terms. READ MORE