Days after shocking the world with his upset victory in the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump espoused his hope of negotiating the “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs to resolve the “war that never ends.” As Trump told The Wall Street Journal at the time: “As a deal maker, I’d like to do … the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake.”
Over eight years later, back in the White House following a Democratic interregnum and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, Trump confirmed his interest in forging the “ultimate deal.” Crucially, however, Trump’s basic parameters of such a deal will not, to put it mildly, be those long favored by the bipartisan foreign policy establishment.
Before getting into his latest proposal, let’s flash back to Trump’s first term.
From 2017 to 2021, Trump…
