A report published by Israeli and American media on Wednesday that President Donald Trump would lead a summit with Arab leaders at Camp David to unveil his administration’s plan for peace in the Middle East is being denied by the White House. The report, which originated with the Hebrew-language Yediot Aharonot daily newspaper, said the summit would take place before the September 17 national elections in Israel.
“No summit has currently been planned,” said a senior White House official quoted by The Jerusalem Post. “The Middle East team will report back to the president, the vice president, the secretary of state and the National Security Council upon returning to discuss the many potential next steps to expand upon the success of the Bahrain workshop.”
Senior White House adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner was to have arrived Wednesday evening in Israel, and was said to be planning to personally invite Arab leaders to the summit during his visits to their countries in the weeks ahead.
According to the report, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer both had some involvement in helping to plan the summit, although neither is attend the event due to concerns their presence would make it harder for Arab leaders to freely participate.
It was also reported the president is expected to speak at the summit about a Palestinian “entity” rather than a “state” and to refer to an Arab “presence” in eastern Jerusalem, rather than define that section of the city as a “capital for a future Palestinian state.”
The Palestinian Authority is expected to reject the plan immediately, just as it has rejected every other proposal since the president’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and the transfer of the American Embassy to that capital within the year that followed.