Like much of his presidency, President Donald Trump is offering to solve a problem his predecessors couldn’t in a manner that bucks the conventional wisdom. Two days ago, the State Department announced they would cut $25 million in funding for a hospital network in East Jerusalem. Today, the administration ordered the closure of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) office in Washington, D.C. effectively severing diplomatic ties with the group. If there is a broader strategy at play, WGBH News analyst and founder of the GroundTruth Project Charlie Sennott doesn’t see it.
“I wonder how much further can you push the Palestinians?” Sennott said on Boston Public Radio this morning. “They have no borders, and no ability to do commerce. They suffer from terrible leadership on the Palestinian side [and] from occupation on the other side. Then you add on top of that a sense of defeat that the peace process won’t happen, then [Trump] wants to punish them?”
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to end the conflict, but like many aspects of his presidency, it’s a promise he may not be able to keep. In Sennott’s eyes, Trump lost any chance of achieving a peace deal when he abruptly moved the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This move set off a series of riots in the city, and drew strong rebukes from key allies such as Germany, Britain, France and Saudi Arabia.
“Talk about the art of the deal...President Trump got nothing from [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Sennott said. “He could have gotten the end of the building of settlements. He could have fought for that, and he didn’t.”
Today’s closure of the PLO office in Washington has put even more strain on an already tense relationship between Trump and the Palestinians, and now makes the chances of a peace deal all the more unlikely.
Click on the audio player above to listen to the full interview
