Obama to meet Abbas May 28

Is this a great setback for Israel or a meaningless gesture?
Aide: Obama to meet Abbas on May 28 in White House
By Haaretz Staff and Agencies

An aide to Mahmoud Abbas says the Palestinian president will meet with President Barack Obama in Washington on May 28.

 

Nabil Abu Rudeineh says Abbas wants the U.S. to persuade the new Israeli government to accept a two-state solution - namely, separate Israeli and Palestinian states living alongside each other in peace.

 

Abbas also wants the U.S. to persuade Israel to halt its settlement construction.
 
Israel's new hardline government has balked at supporting the creation of a Palestinian state. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he plans to keep building in settlements.

 

On Tuesday, Obama said he expected Israelis and Palestinians to make gestures of good faith within months to revive the languishing Mideast peace process.

 

The White House said Netanyahu would also visit Washington in the next few weeks.

 

The United States is interested in promoting the peace process through a series of confidence-building gestures between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Arab states, a senior American official who declined to be named told Haaretz.