Trump Turns Away from the Palestinians

Al-Monitor quotes USCPR Executive Director Yousef Munayyer in their article about the increasing alignment of US policy with Israeli positions, and the implications for future negotiations:

I think we all knew at the outset of the Trump administration that this was going to be an administration that was very much in line with right-wing Israeli fantasies. But it was not exactly clear how it would manifest itself in policy.

And then we started seeing these changes one step at a time. As you look at the entire pattern, what it amounts to is a systematic realignment of US policy to be Israeli policy at the negotiating table on issue after issue.

[The Trump administration] is changing the goal of these negotiations from what previously had been agreed on by previous US administrations, that the outcome is to create an independent Palestinian state alongside the Israeli state.

As far as the Palestinians are concerned, they said after the Jerusalem embassy move, ‘We can’t work with this administration.’ And every step further the Trump administration has taken, is just vindicating the Palestinian position in the eyes of the world. Nobody is going to blame the Palestinians for not taking Trump seriously.