Despite the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apparently close relationship with Donald Trump, he told agroup of his MPs yesterday that Israel does not have a 'blank cheque' from America.
Netanyahu's comments to his Likud party meeting came after comments from Likud members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, calling for the prime minister to be more vocal in opposing a two-state solution, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The paper said that Netanyahu told his representatives that while Israel is a sovereign country that can make many decisions, the country must proceed in the diplomatic process 'wisely and responsibly,' and those claiming that Israel has a 'diplomatic blank check' are wrong.
The prime minister also reportedly said that Trump is determined to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
The US President has said after his trip to the region last week that both Netanyahu and the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas want a peace deal.
But Israel's deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely was quoted as saying at the meeting with Netanyahu that Israel does not have to agree to any agreement.
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian official yesterday denied a report about a confrontation between Trump and Abbas during the American leader's visit to Bethlehem last week.
'It is a total fabrication and a lie,' Ahmad Majdalani, a confidant of Abbas, told the Post.
Israel's Channel 2 reported on Sunday that Trump shouted at Abbas, saying he was fooling him.
'You deceived me in Washington,' Trump was reported as telling Abbas, referring to a meeting they had in the US capital earlier in May. 'You spoke to me about peace, but the Israelis showed me that you personally have a hand in incitement.'
Majdalani added that all the meetings between Abbas and Trump have been positive. 'The talks we have had with the American administration have been based on mutual respect,' he said. 'They have been positive, and we are feeling a major development in the American administration's position.'
Abbas's foreign- policy adviser, Nabil Sha'ath, told the Post that while he is aware that the issue of incitement was raised in the Bethlehem meeting, he has no knowledge of Trump shouting at the PA president.
'There was a question that Mr Trump had about something that Mr Netanyahu told him,' Sha'ath said. 'Our president explained the matter very clearly to Mr. Trump, and the meeting went on quite productively.' Sha'ath added that his account of the meeting is based on a conversation he had with Abbas.
