The only ones who were really pleased with the talks that White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and US envoy Jason Greenblatt held in Jerusalem and Ramallah were the envoys themselves.

The Israeli side was satisfied that a good part of the agenda in these talks was actually determined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that the US envoys initiated only a small part of the topics discussed. A senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official present during part of the talks told Al-Monitor that Netanyahu is a master at formulating agendas for such negotiations, pushing the topic list into his own home turf on which only he can win. In this case, Netanyahu turned the payments by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to families of Palestinian terrorists and prisoners into the cause celebre. He successfully convinced President Donald Trump that these payments encourage terror. In Palestinian eyes, these payments represent a social contribution to large segments of Palestinians for being victims of the conflict.

Discussing this payment issue stole the focus away from the peace process itself and Trump’s aspirations for an “ultimate deal.” In the talks with Kushner and Greenblatt, Netanyahu provided ample evidence that the PA continues the payments, knowing well in advance that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would refuse halting them.

Hours of talks were taken from what the US diplomats originally came for — to convince the parties to join a US-led regional meeting later this year in Washington. This meeting is supposed to focus on anti-terrorism and is intended also to reopen bilateral Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.