INTERVIEW — NOAH POLLAK – Writer, Weekly Standard

• Trump, Meeting With Netanyahu, Backs Away From Palestinian State. WASHINGTON — President Trump jettisoned two decades of diplomatic orthodoxy on Wednesday by declaring that the United States would no longer insist on the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians. Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for the first time since becoming president, Mr. Trump promised a concerted effort to bring the two sides together, suggesting a regional effort involving an array of Arab nations. But he said that he was flexible about how an agreement would look and that he would not be bound by past assumptions.
• Pres. Trump says he “can live with” either one- or two-state solution in Israel.
• When it comes to Israel, stakes are high for Jared Kushner. (CBS News) – President Trump welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. It’s the prime minister’s first visit after years of frosty relations with the Obama administration. Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has emerged as a quiet force in the Trump White House, serving as a main conduit for foreign contacts in Mexico, China and Canada, among others. But when it comes to Israel, the stakes are especially high, reports CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford. For Kushner, it’s also personal.

• Chad Pergram ‏@ChadPergram 15m15 minutes ago: Senate Foreign Relations hrng today on nomination of David Friedman to be US Ambassador to Israel
• David Friedman, Trump’s pick for Israel envoy, expected to apologize for bashing liberal Jews. (JTA) — President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is expected to apologize during his Senate confirmation hearing for derogatory statements he has made against liberal Jews. Representatives of the nominee told Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., who is the senior Democratic member of the Foreign Relations Committee that will hold the confirmation hearing, that Friedman will apologize for use of the term “kapo” to attack J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Kapos are the Jewish prisoners who were forced to work for the Nazis in the concentration and death camps.