Speaking with AFP, AGSIW Senior Resident Scholar Hussein Ibish commented on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ visit with U.S. President Donald J. Trump in Washington, DC: “[Trump] has very little baggage: all the parties like him right now. The Palestinians like him, the Israelis like him, the Arabs like him.” He continued, “Everything else has failed, why not a Trumpian approach?”

Ibish also spoke with Jewish Journal regarding the visit: “(Jason) Greenblatt by all accounts has been pursuing economic initiatives that would bring short term relief to the Palestinians on the West Bank. That is a very good place to start, but eventually it only goes so far.”

Additionally, speaking with Arab News, Ibish commented on an Arab News/YouGov poll measuring the “knowledge gap” among Americans on the Arab wold: “This poll almost entirely confirms long-known and well-understood features of lack of understanding about the Middle East, the Arab world and the Middle Eastern affairs by most Americans.”