Trump peace plan rollout at White House had Mar-A-Lago feel
Trump's peace plan, rolled out with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu but with no Palestinians present, would give the Palestinians no border with Jordan.
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A military band in red dress uniforms played "Hail to the Chief" as US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu entered the White House East Room. Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the GOP donors and pro-Israel philanthropists, were sitting in the front row, along with the US and Israeli officials and VIPs who had labored on the plan. There were of course members of Congress and other VIPs, including Trump impeachment attorney Alan Dershowitz, former Connecticut Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, now head of the anti-nuclear deal United Against Nuclear Iran, and the ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman. No Palestinian officials were present — the Trump administration ordered the Palestinian mission in Washington closed in 2018.
Trump and Netanyahu both made lengthy congratulatory statements on a 180-page peace plan almost no one had seen prior, frequently interrupted by applause. They took no questions, though a couple hundred journalists stood packed in the back. Of the major American news channels, only Fox News apparently covered the event live, which was hastily scheduled during the last day of the Trump defense team’s arguments in Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
Trump, sounding relaxed and untroubled by the Senate proceedings, proclaimed his peace vision a historic breakthrough.
