There were quite a number of people in the Israeli peace camp who hoped, even believed, in the statements made by US President Donald Trump regarding his intentions to consolidate a large “package deal” between Israel, the Palestinians and all the Arab states. The rapid pace of presidential envoy Jason Greenblatt’s jet-setting between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the West Bank also strengthened the perception that the current arch-conservative president might succeed where two liberal presidents — Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — failed.

The long hours that Greenblatt spent with top officials of both sides, and his “learning” tours of the territories, served to strengthen a certain amount of optimism. However, one sentence uttered by the envoy — his summary at the end of a tour on Aug. 30 along the length of the Gaza Strip border with Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai — turned this feeling into an illusion, and real hope into “fake hope.” Greenblatt called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to retake control of Gaza and administer it, because the Hamas regime had failed to provide for the needs of the population. This demand is as realistic as calling on South Korea to take control of North Korea’s nuclear facilities, because the Pyongyang government does not allow its citizens freedom of expression.

If we assume that Greenblatt expresses his master’s voice, then such a statement testifies to a basic lack of understanding by the administration of the conflict and the ways to resolve it. How, exactly, does the Trump administration expect the PA to reassume governance over the Gaza Strip? It is hard to believe that Washington wants to open up a new military front in the Middle East, and that Ramallah’s security apparatuses would blow up Hamas’ power centers in Gaza under the cover of Israeli air force planes and cannons on Israeli navy ships. Or did Greenblatt mean the democratic option; in other words, to hold elections for president and a legislative council? Such a step would be a replication of the fatal mistake made by President George W. Bush, who forced the PA to hold general elections 11 years ago. David Welch, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the time and told him bluntly, “If you cancel the elections, you can forget our phone numbers.”

If Greenblatt would have asked Abbas his opinion regarding putting himself to the test of public opinion again, he would have received the same answer that Bush received in 2006. At the time, Abbas warned the Americans that one-sided Gaza disengagement, on the backdrop of a diplomatic stalemate and continuous settlement construction in the West Bank, is perceived by the Palestinian public as an achievement of the Hamas anti-Abbas camp.