In an interview with BBC Arabic and on the Randy Tobler radio show, Dr Walid Phares said "the UNSCR resolution on Israel and the West Bank demographics and the debates that followed, have shifted attention away from the larger pressing issues and conflicts in the region, without even proposing a comprehensive solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem.

After CNN posted a report on a closed meeting in Washington where Dr Walid Phares -as an expert- projected the main developments in the Middle East in 2017 to the Arab ambassadors and diplomats at the office of the Arab League, other Arab sites replicated  the same report. CNN reporting attempted to focus on the "projected Trump-Russia cooperation in the region" but failed to accurately report from 'unnamed sources.' CNN relied fully on unknown sources, making another mistake regarding the Palestinian-Israeli assessment, prompting leftwing Israeli daily Haaretz to post a misrepresentative piece as well. The original faulty and rushed CNN report led to a series of limping re-postings.