Global geopolitical Series: Trump administration calls Abbas to either choose hateful rhetoric or peace & prosperity

The Trump administration delivered a stark warning to Palestine Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas after he blew an insult targeting the U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, telling him that time has come to choose between hateful rhetoric and peace & prosperity.  Speaking at a meeting of Ramallah based Palestinian leadership at the PA Presidential headquarter, Abbas called Freidman, ‘son of a dog’. Abbas made the comment about Friedman after the American ambassador to Israel criticized the PA earlier on Monday for not publicly condemning a car ramming by a Palestinian that took the life of two Israeli soldiers last Friday. At the meeting, Abbas blamed Hamas for carrying out the attack.

Since that December policy move, where president Trump recognized Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, Abbas and his aides have repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump and his senior staff. Administration officials have declined to engage. Over the last three months, Abbas has said that Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv as the "slap of the century", a move that, in Abbas' view, disqualifies Trump from any role in the future peace talks between the PA and Israel. His aides have dismissed Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s special representative for international negotiations as a "Zionist," told US ambassador Nikki Haley to "shut up," at the UN and have repeatedly criticized Friedman over his sympathy for the settler movement.

This is the first time the administration has delivered a stark warning to Abbas. Jason Greenblatt said, “The time has come for President Abbas to choose between hateful rhetoric and concrete and practical efforts to improve the quality of life of his people and lead them to peace and prosperity…….Notwithstanding his highly inappropriate insults against members of the Trump administration, the latest iteration being his insult of my good friend and colleague Ambassador Friedman, we are committed to the Palestinian people and to the changes that must be implemented for peaceful coexistence…….We are finalizing our plan for peace…….and we will advance it when circumstances are right."