Greenblatt prays at Western Wall

Trump became the first sitting president to visit the site in May.

By MICHAEL WILNER
Jason Greenblatt (photo credit: Courtesy)
Jason Greenblatt
(photo credit: Courtesy)
WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump's special representative for international negotiations stopped by the Western Wall on Monday night before taking meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Jason Greenblatt, a Jewish American who served as one of Trump's lawyers for many years, is currently leading the president's effort to jumpstart Mideast peace talks. He prayed for "peace for all" at the holy site, as well as for the families he met with earlier in the day who have missing sons believed to be in Hamas captivity.

Trump became the first sitting president to visit the site in May. The nature of prayer at the wall has become a point of contention between Israelis and American Jews in recent weeks, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walked back his commitment to a section of the wall devote to egalitarian prayer, infuriating US Jewish groups.
The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is coordinating the Trump administration's response to that crisis, according to several administration officials from the White House and State Department. Greenblatt is scheduled to meet with Friedman while in Israel, along with senior Palestinian Authority officials on Tuesday and Netanyahu on Wednesday.