JERUSALEM — It’s been more than a year since senior Palestinian officials have agreed to meet or even speak with representatives of the Trump administration, but now President Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, appears to have adopted a new diplomatic channel:
Twitter.
Over the past few weeks, Greenblatt has been tweeting his thoughts, requests and criticisms to those Palestinian leaders who are active on the popular social media platform.
And on Saturday, he seemed to confirm his new brand of tweet-diplomacy, writing:
“And who says the U.S. and the P.A. aren’t talking? The only difference now is that we are speaking about these matters in public via twitter so the public can understand everyone’s positions. Transparency is better for all.”
Since December 2017, when Trump announced he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and transfer the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv – a move considered highly controversial and one-sided by the Palestinians – leaders and peace negotiators from the Palestinian side have waved off all U.S. diplomatic efforts.
Despite the cold shoulder, the U.S. administration says it has forged ahead with what Trump once described as “the deal of the century” to solve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In recent weeks, there has been speculation that this improbable peace plan will be unveiled after Israel’s general election, which takes place on April 9. There has been no official indication of it, however.
In fact, there has been little indication of any aspect of the mysterious plan, and any suggestions of what it might contain have immediately been denied by Greenblatt.
It was such a denial that kicked off this latest round of tweet-diplomacy on Jan. 17.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported and tweeted that he had some details about the opaque peace plan, nothing too untoward, just some of the basic tenets. Ravid’s report immediately sparked a response from Greenblatt:
“While I respect @BarakRavid, his report on Israel’s Ch. 13 is not accurate. Speculation about the content of the plan is not helpful. Very few people on the planet know what is in it … for now …”
A few days later, as the Twitterverse discussed what might or might not be accurate about the points raised by Ravid – and Greenblatt’s brush off – Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, tweeted:
“You need a large grain of salt to believe any leak from Israeli sources, especially in the context of elections rhetoric. Anyway this has been vehemently denied by @jdgreenblatt45. Hypotheticals & red herrings to distract & divert. The US administration has zero credibility.”
The “zero credibility” comment seemed to push buttons in Washington, and Greenblatt promptly responded:
“@DrHananAshrawi: you may dislike our policies & decisions, but to say we have ‘zero credibility’ is simply not factual. @POTUS has kept his commitments, such as recognizing #Jerusalem as the capital of #Israel & moving our Embassy to #Jerusalem.”
The message was followed by a long thread that seemed to shine a spotlight on the Trump administration’s frustrations with the Palestinian leadership for its continual refusal to meet with or speak to U.S. officials.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.