Trump to unveil ME peace plan
President Donald Trump hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday ahead of unveiling a "peace plan" already flatly rejected by the Palestinians -- but providing both leaders welcome distraction from their respective political crises.
The White House meeting with Netanyahu and, separately, with his arch rival Benny Gantz, thrusts Trump right into Israel's tense election scheduled in just over a month.
Netanyahu's right-wing Likud and Gantz's centrist Blue and White party are polling neck-and-neck.
An Oval Office sitdown with Trump and a second session today, when the two men are expected to roll out the peace plan, will reinforce Netanyahu's message that he has the US president's ear.
It will also boost his standing while he fights a mounting corruption scandal.
Despite signs that the White House peace plan is dead on arrival, Netanyahu is talking it up as the "deal of the century."
For Trump, the two days of meetings should cement support among right-wing Christian evangelicals -- a key part of his base in the November presidential election -- just as his Senate impeachment trial climaxes.
Trump has already thrown Netanyahu a string of political presents.
These include breaking with international diplomatic consensus to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which were seized from neighboring Syria, and ending opposition to Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
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