"(T )he Trump team... objective is to fundamentally reframe the U.S.'s understanding of, and policy toward, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
shifting the focus toward Palestinians' material, economic concerns while downplaying their political and national ones.
There are ...explanations for the administration's decisions, including domestic politics, the president's determination to live up to those of his campaign pledges that appeal to his natural base, and his team's desire to align U.S. policies more closely with those of Netanyahu.
But the (Trump team's) relentless, dogged assault against the foundations of traditional U.S. and international policy, ... has shown remarkable single-mindedness and sense of purpose.
Its first target has been the two-state solution itself.
The essence of the approach pursued by the three prior administrations (not to mention several Israeli governments) has been to promote such an outcome....This, the current administration has stubbornly refused to endorse....
Palestinians are not necessarily entitled to a state of their own, and Palestinian statehood ought not to be viewed as the natural or inevitable outcome of this process."
Robert Malley, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group
Aaron David Miller, Vice-President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Middle East Program
