Trump’s Israel visit said to include stops at Masada, Western Wall

JTA
Published May 9, 2017

(JTA) — President Donald Trump’s two-day-visit to Israel in March will reportedly include stops at Masada and the Western Wall as well as meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Trump will arrive in Israel on May 22, when he will visit the Western Wall and meet with President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. That day may also include a “possible visit” to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial.

On March 23, Trump will speak at Masada, the Roman-era fortress in the Negev Desert,  and meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to Channel 2.

Last week Trump announced that he would visit Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Vatican on his first overseas trip as president.

In a briefing for reporters after the announcement, a senior aide to Trump said the thrust of the tour, which will precede a previously announced visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, is to unite the world’s nations and the three faiths — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — against terrorism.

The agenda was deliberately set “to bring about all the different countries, all the different religions, in the fight against terrorism,” said the aide.