U.S. VP Pence Delays Israel Visit

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has postponed his visit to Israel and the region, as his Republican Party scrambles to devise legislation on comprehensive tax reform that is intended to be passed before Christmas. Israeli sources confirmed that Pence pushed back his arrival date from this Sunday to next Wednesday at the latest. During his trip, the vice president is scheduled to address the Israeli parliament, the first high-ranking U.S. official to do so since then-president George W. Bush in 2008. He is also expected to visit the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site which is located in the eastern part of Jerusalem. The move is liable to draw further ire from the Palestinian Authority, which has declared Pence persona non grata in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. At an Islamic summit in Istanbul on Wednesday, PA chief Mahmoud Abbas described the American policy shift as a “crime” and a gift to the “Zionist movement,” while claiming that the Trump administration had gone back on an agreement to not move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem in exchange for a Palestinian commitment to forego joining additional international bodies. Abbas stressed that Washington had effectively relinquished its role as mediator of the peace process; this, as President Trump’s Middle East envoys are formulating the parameters of a comprehensive deal that is to be rolled out in early 2018. In response, a White House official said that such rhetoric from Abbas “has prevented peace for years” and reiterated that the U.S. remains committed to brokering an agreement. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu described Abbas’ speech as “unimpressive.”