Did Right Wingers Ruin Ron Lauder’s Dinner With Mahmoud Abbas?
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By Naomi Zeveloff May 9, 2017
Ron Lauder, cosmetics heir and president of the World Jewish Congress, prepped Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his meeting with President Trump last week, a move that irked right-wingers and may have even led them to ruin the leaders’ dinner plans, according to a report in Israel’s Maariv newspaper.
The report said that Lauder’s office had ordered takeout from a fancy restaurant for the two men, but the delivery was mysteriously canceled.
Lauder is a close associate of Trump. His advice to Abbas infuriated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was aware of the behind-the-scenes meeting between Lauder and Abbas.
According to the report, right wing Israel supporters railed against Lauder for his overtures to Abbas and other Arab leaders to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
Lauder and Netanyahu once had a cozy relationship, but Netanyahu iced Lauder out after Lauder did not stop Channel 10, at the time one of his investments, from airing a critical series on Netanyahu and his wife Sara Netanyahu.
Abbas was apparently pleased with his meeting with Trump, and the two struck up a kind of “chemistry” that could lead to a peace breakthrough.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at zeveloff@forward.com or on Twitter @naomizeveloff
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