“Trump believes, or is being led by people close to him to believe, that he can ‘Make America’s Middle East Peace Efforts Great Again’ through his favored strategy: elevating far right-wing ideologues and sycophants over competent professionals; blowing up all the policies that came before him; and adopting new policies that all rational experts and historians warn won’t work and will likely backfire,” writes FMEP’s Lara Friedman.

“Effectively downgrading the status of the Palestinians in Washington, changing U.S. policy on Jerusalem, and moving forward with legislation that will implicitly define the Palestinian Authority as a body that supports terror – each of these new policies, on its own, would be sufficient to cast profound doubt on the commitment of the United States to a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” writes FMEP’s Lara Friedman.

“Under normal circumstances you would expect someone who has a background of activism related to Israel to be working very hard to take a step back from that to show that he can be a credible mediator. Not only is that not the case, it’s the opposite,” Lara Friedman tells ProPublica.

“With his announcement on Wednesday, Mr. Trump has legitimized Israel’s illegal actions and sent the message that the United States no longer has any regard for international conventions or norms, and that might and power prevail over justice and the law,” writes Hanan Ashrawi.

Jerusalem expert, activist, and attorney Daniel Seidemann talks to +972 about the short- and long-term ramifications of Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem, from the prospects of violence to the void left behind as Washington disqualifies itself as broker in the Israel-Palestine political process.

“It’s insane. We’re all resistant,” said one Trump confidant who recently spoke to the president about it. “He doesn’t realize what all he could trigger by doing this.”

Tillerson, Mattis and Pompeo said to have privately urged Trump to reconsider recognition of capital, while Kushner and Greenblatt asked to delay the embassy move.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said US President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem has ended Washington’s historic role as the key sponsor for Israel-Palestinian peace talks, and called for an emergency meeting of the Palestinian leadership.

Hours after ordering preparations for a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, President Donald Trump delayed moving the diplomatic mission to the city by another six months.

Jordan on Wednesday rejected the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, calling it legally “null” because it consolidated Israel’s occupation of the eastern sector of the contested city.

Conflicts over Jerusalem go back thousands of years — including biblical times, the Roman Empire and the Crusades — but the current one is a distinctly 20th-century story, with roots in colonialism, nationalism and anti-Semitism.

“The history of Palestinian activism does not support the central concept of outside-in, which is that powerful Arab regimes can impose their will on the Palestinians,” writes Paul Pillar.

At least 16 Palestinians were wounded on Thursday in the West Bank, East Jerualem and Gaza during clashes with Israeli soldiers following U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, according to the Red Crescent.

Influential exiled Palestinian politician Mohammed Dahlan said on Wednesday Palestinians should reject any future peace talks and halt security coordination with Israel over US plans to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The legislation, an amendment to Basic Law: Jerusalem, would raise the number of MKs needed to give up Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem to 80 MKs, two-thirds of the Knesset.