Trump risked disaster with Abbas praise in key Israel meeting, ambassador says
by Martin Pengelly in New York from US news | The Guardian on (#5VQR4)
In new book, David Friedman recounts private meeting with Israeli president in which Trump also knocked Netanyahu - and how he says he turned his man around
Meeting then-Israeli president Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem in May 2017, Donald Trump stunned advisers by criticising the then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for being unwilling to seek peace while Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, was desperate" for a deal.
The comment knocked everyone off their chairs", David Friedman, Trump's ambassador to Israel, writes in a new book.
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