Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday called the U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman a “son of a bitch,” and referred to him and his family as “settlers” during a meeting with Palestinian leaders in Ramallah, further straining the rift between the Palestinian officials and the White House.

The Trump administration is reportedly days away from releasing their peace plan to Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Yet the head of the Palestinian Mission in Washington DC, Ambassador Husam Zomlot has already signaled the peace plan, whenever it will be released, has no chance. “The May 14 embassy opening is a ‘media stunt’ for Netanyahu, it is a catastrophe for all the people in all sides, it will be remembered as the day of crossing the Rubicon,” Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot tells Mondoweiss. 

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that he wants the West Bank to remain under Israeli’s military control and does not want the Palestinians living there to become citizens or “subjects” of Israel, revealing an apparent hope to annex the occupied Palestinian territory while leaving its residents stateless.

At the annual AIPAC policy conference in Washington DC, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a bleak image of expanding Iranian influence in the Middle East set against a thriving Israel united with the United States. In true Netanyahu fashion the speech was more upbeat than stern, and of course it included props.

After President Donald Trump praised a group of white nationalists in Charlottesville last year, describing “some very fine people on both sides,” at last 20 groups cancelled events at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago in protest. But one group stood with the president amid the controversy. “I wanted to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. President, for being a supporter of the state of Israel, our only ally in the Mideast,’” said Steven Alembic, organizer of the The Truth About Israel Gala Event at Mar-a-Lago.

Mahmoud Abbas’s former adviser Diana Buttu said his address to the U.N. Security Council would not achieve anything. It is “yet another iteration of speeches long ago, in which he once again implored the world to convene an international conference to address Palestinian rights.”

After comedian Sarah Silverman called last week for people “to stand up” for imprisoned Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi, she quickly encountered a barrage of feedback that lasted through the weekend. She was labelled a supporter of terrorism, but she stood her ground.

In a talk yesterday at the Middle East Institute, Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot accused Donald Trump of “backstabbing” Mahmoud Abbas, deepening a dispute over who is to blame for the failure of a peace deal with Israel. While earlier in the day Trump said Palestinian leaders had abandoned pre-talk discussions, Zomlot presented an altogether different narrative: the Palestinians were bystanders to internal divisions within the Trump administration that prevented peace talks from starting months ago.

Relaying an unusually pessimistic outlook on Middle East peace, a senior White House official said today the Trump administration and the Palestinian leadership have not spoken in nearly seven weeks, breaking contact after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

In a sign that the United States is ratcheting up pressure on Palestinian leadership, the Trump administration sent notice to the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) that it is withholding over half of this year’s annual commitment, paying $60 million and freezing another $65 million. The move indicates the U.S. is leveraging its financial support to pressure Palestinian officials into acquiescing to its vision for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.