Trump's Mideast peace plan won't have pro-Israel bias, U.S. officials say

"If we wanted to draft a 'Bibi plan' that is not fair, balanced, realistic and appropriate we could have done that 17 months ago. I don't think characterizing it as a 'Bibi plan' is a fair characterization of our plan. There will be parts of the plan both sides are going to not like."

As I reported yesterday, the White House Middle East peace team — Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt — are going to travel to Jerusalem, Cairo, Riyadh and Doha next week to discuss the plan, which could be released soon, and the crisis in Gaza.

• Kushner and Greenblatt will not meet Palestinian officials, who are boycotting the White House over President Trump's Jerusalem embassy announcement. However, the White House believes there might be a chance to renew contacts with the Palestinians after the plan is launched and as Arab and Western countries see what's in it and urge them to engage.

One senior official told me: "Look what happened two days ago in North Korea. Things change and we have long term view of this. We don't let ourselves get dragged down by decisions that occur because we think those decisions might eventually change under the right circumstances."