Donald Trump widens the divide between Israelis and Palestinians

A Palestinian boy holds his flag amid the clashes. Picture: AFP.

President Trump may have thought he had a new approach to making peace between the Israelis and Palestinians but yesterday’s events looked depressingly similar to the results of efforts by previous administrations.

Israeli troops firing into Gaza and scores of people dying: this or something like it has been the regular, not the game-changing, pattern.

In announcing the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem Mr Trump again broke with his predecessor. Jerusalem’s status was left undecided in the UN resolution that brought Israel into existence 70 years ago and all previous presidents have agreed that this meant it would not be recognised as the capital until the Palestinians agreed to a peace deal.

Benjamin and Sarah Netanyahu take selfies with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Picture: Getty Images.

That has largely been held to mean a two-state solution, certainly by America and its allies. America has initiated repeated efforts at peace talks based on this formula. None has succeeded. There was one counterintuitive argument in favour of Mr Trump’s breach of the consensus, which, like so much he has done, was rejected by allies and foes. This was that it removed hypocrisy underlying those peace efforts, and presented a chance for a more honest attempt to change attitudes.

The Palestinians always behaved as if they could persuade America to change Israel’s demands and held back from agreeing to them in the hope that Washington would push their case.

But America was never truly impartial. As Israel’s key ally it was always guarantor of the Israeli state and, by extension, Israel’s refusal to take risks with its security.

America, in effect, politely presided over an endless battle in which an irresistible force, Palestinian demands for more than Israel would ever offer, ran into the immovable object of Israeli resistance while in effect guaranteeing that resistance.

The Israeli and US flags are beamed onto a wall in Jerusalem. Picture: AFP.

Mr Trump seems to have hoped that by backing Israel overtly he could change the rules: rather than being a mediator he could step in and play the skin-in-the-game deal-maker. Causing chaos was not a problem: that brought the North Koreans to the table, so why not the Palestinians too?

Thus Mr Trump sent Jared Kushner to present ideas to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who as powerbroker of the Sunni Arab world was supposed to be able to impose them on the Palestinians.

They are said to have agreed that if Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, accepted Israel’s demands on security and the (lack of a) right to return of Palestinian refugees, he would have his two-state solution. If he did not he would be replaced with someone who would.

By setting up powerful Arab actors to stand behind Israel’s red lines Mr Trump was at last making America’s position clear. The prince has never formally acknowledged his conversations with Mr Abbas, however, and showed yesterday that there is always a spoiler in such approaches: what Palestinians choose to do.

The Times