US Vice President Mike Pence has begun a visit to Israel after being praised as a “great friend” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and shunned by the Palestinians over US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
It is the highest-level US visit to the region since President Donald Trump made his declaration on December 6 and promised to begin the process of moving the American embassy to the city, whose status is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
With the Palestinians boycotting Pence, the visit provides little obvious opportunity to build bridges towards peace.
Before arriving in Israel on Sunday, Pence held meetings with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan and US officials travelling with him said that he had sought to encourage them to pressure the Palestinians to return to peace talks.
Read the full article by Jeff Mason of AAP at Perth Now.