Is Trump's peace plan stillborn?

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received two pieces of bad news within hours on Aug. 22.

First, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, considered a Netanyahu champion and a hard-line standard-bearer in the administration, told Reuters that the United States had not changed its position on Israel’s unilateral annexation of the Golan Heights in 1980. That was all it took to sink the latest initiative by Israelis hoping to take advantage of Trump’s move into the White House and his (alleged) basic ignorance of Middle Eastern affairs in order to obtain US recognition of the annexation.

Next, Trump himself appeared at a West Virginia political rally, boasting of his presidential achievements, among them his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The move, he said, had taken the issue of Jerusalem “off the negotiating table” with the Palestinians. How that was achieved is unclear, and it is not known whether Trump truly thinks that with the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, the Palestinians will drop their demand that East Jerusalem serve as their capital. Trump then dropped the other shoe, or the “bomb” as it were, announcing that going forward, the Palestinians would get “something very good,” whereas the Israelis will have to pay a high price in negotiations in return for the recognition of Jerusalem as their capital.

Trump’s roller coaster has kept us dumfounded and guessing ever since he announced his bid for the presidency. Time after time, we have tried to understand what the man wants, what his plans are, only to realize, repeatedly, the limits of our understanding. He has taken almost every position imaginable on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.