Readers React: Donald Trump’s misguided pledge to be ‘neutral’ in Mideast peace talks

To the editor: In his op-ed article praising Donald Trump for promising to broker Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from a neutral standpoint, Dov Waxman has the role of an effective mediator backward. (“Trump’s one good foreign policy idea: neutrality in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Opinion, March 9)

As a litigator for 28 years, I can tell you that if your mediator is neutral, the case will not settle because neither party will see the need to capitulate. A good mediator can convince both sides that they each have something to lose.

The reason there has been no progress in the Middle East is because many of the Palestinians embrace death for their cause and are thus willing to pay the ultimate price. This is why in 2008 Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas rejected then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s offer meeting nearly all of the demands, stating the Palestinians will accept only “territorial continuity, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, without settlements, and on the June 4, 1967 boundaries.”

Waxman’s statement that the Palestinians have been required to capitulate to “all of Israel’s demands” is simply nonsense.

Rena Kreitenberg, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Waxman’s mostly laudatory article on Trump’s statements regarding the Mideast peace process is a prelude to things to come.

Now that Trump’s nomination by Republicans appears inevitable, pragmatism will supersede ideology. Trump is already reaching out to the GOP establishment; some of its members appear to be responding favorably.

Every stance taken by Trump is malleable; soon they will become “good ideas” on trade, immigration and foreign policy.

After Trump wins Florida, the Republicans will take his nomination as fait accompli. At that time we will see the efforts of “marriage counselors” working frenetically to save the conjugality of this odd couple: a Republican Party that lost its sanity years ago and a megalomaniac who will mask his inflated self-esteem to achieve his ultimate goal of grandiosity, which is to become the president of the United States.

David S. Cantor, Los Angeles

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