ISRAEL wants to change the rules of the game entirely. With unconditional support from the Trump administration, Tel Aviv sees a golden opportunity to redefine what has, for decades, constituted the legal and political foundation for the so-called “Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

While US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy has, thus far, been erratic and unpredictable, his administration’s “vision” in Israel and Palestine is systematic and unswerving. This consistency seems to be part of a larger vision aimed at liberating the “conflict” from the confines of international law and even the old US-sponsored “peace process.”

Indeed, the new strategy has, so far, targeted the status of East Jerusalem as an occupied Palestinian city, and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. It aims to create a new reality in which Israel achieves its strategic goals while the rights of Palestinians are limited to mere humanitarian issues.