Did Right Wingers Ruin Ron Lauder’s Dinner With Mahmoud Abbas?
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 [email protected] or on Twitter @naomizeveloff
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