As White House senior adviser Jared Kushner rolled out the first stage of a long-awaited Middle East peace plan in Bahrain last week, Palestinian store owner Abdul Al-Mohtaseb was serving cardamon coffee outside his shop in Hebron, the largest city in the occupied West Bank.

Al-Mohtaseb’s store sells sodas, ceramics, traditional fabrics, and tote bags printed with the images British artist Banksy graffitied on the separation barrier meant to divide Israelis from Palestinians in the West Bank. It also occupies prime real estate, overlooking the sacred site where both Muslims and Jews believe Abraham, the “father of the faithful” is buried. The 58-year-old told TIME on June 26 that settlers backed by an Australian mining magnate once offered $100million for his store and adjoining house. He turned it down, he says. “They called me crazy Abdul.”

Kushner too believes monetary incentives can appeal to Palestinians in the occupied territories, judging by the first glimpse at his proposal t..

Two former high-level White House officials flatly denied President Donald Trump’s claims on Sunday that President Barack Obama repeatedly sought meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In a joint news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, President Trump claimed that his predecessor had tried to meet with Kim on multiple occasions, only to be rebuffed.

“President Obama wanted to meet, and Chairman Kim would not meet him,” the President said. “The Obama administration was begging for a meeting. They were begging for meetings constantly, and Chairman Kim would not meet with him.”

“Trump is lying,” tweeted Ben Rhodes, who served as Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications during the Obama administration. “I was there for all eight years. Obama never sought a meeting with Kim Jong Un. Foreign policy isn’t reality television it’s reality.”

Trump is lying. I was there for all 8 years. Obama never sought a meeting with Kim Jong Un. Foreign policy..

JERUSALEM — American officials looked on Sunday as Israel opened a newfound Roman-era street at a divisive archaeological site in east Jerusalem, a move that deepened Palestinian animosity toward the White House’s mediation efforts.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attended the event along with three other visiting American ambassadors as well as President Donald Trump’s Mideast negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The City of David Foundation unveiled what it called “the pilgrimage road,” a 2,000-year-old main thoroughfare from Roman-era Jerusalem that it says served visitors to the ancient Jewish Temple. The multi-year project to excavate beneath the mostly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan cost over $100 million, with donors including Russian billionaire Roman Abramovitch, Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson and Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

Adelson attended the event, as did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife, Sara.

Visitors ..

(PANMUNJOM, Korea) — With wide grins and a historic handshake, President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un met at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone on Sunday and agreed to revive talks on the pariah nation’s nuclear program. Trump, pressing his bid for a legacy-defining deal, became the first sitting American leader to step into North Korea.

What was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two technically warring nations. It marked a return to face-to-face contact between the leaders after talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February. Significant doubts remain, though, about the future of the negotiations and the North’s willingness to give up its stockpile of nuclear weapons .

The border encounter was a made-for television moment. The men strode toward one another from opposite sides of the Joint Security Area and shook hands over the raised patch..

SEOUL, South Korea — South Koreans watched the historic meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sunday with a mixture of hope and skepticism, wondering whether it will be enough to relieve their biggest security concern — North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

The impromptu get-together at the inter-Korean border, where an armistice was signed 66 years ago to stop the fighting of a war that killed or injured millions, was Trump and Kim’s third overall meeting and first since their summit in February in Hanoi, Vietnam, collapsed over disagreements over sanctions relief.

Some South Koreans said Sunday’s meeting — which saw Trump briefly step into North Korean territory to become the first U.S. president to cross into the country — would help resolve a deadlock in nuclear negotiations and revive a positive atmosphere for peace. Others, however, said it was yet another summit that was all style and no substance. They also raised concerns over what th..