Biden and Trump are like night and day on foreign policy, and American global engagement would change radically under a Biden presidency. But actual Mideast policy might show only cosmetic changes.
'Beta testing' of bold ideas is rare in foreign affairs, but the UAE and Bahrain have provided just such a test case for the Saudis in their own push to normalise relations with Israel.
These Palestinians aren’t happy with Trump’s Israel deal, which required Israel to make no territorial concessions. Gaza, Aug. 16, 2020.
Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Israel and the United Arab Emirates weren't at war, so their new deal is not really a peace accord. Nor does it satisfy the Palestinians, who need Arab nations to support their drive for statehood.
PM Benjamin Netanyahu could begin to unveil his annexation plans on July 1 – a move that would be the most contentious move of his lengthy premiership.
Israeli flags fly in the middle of a date plantation in the Israeli settlement of Shlomtzion in the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank on 27 January 2020.
Emmanuel Dunand/AFP
The Jordan Valley, which US president Donald Trump has proposed integrating into Israel, has been transformed by the introduction of date palms, emptying it of its Palestinian inhabitants.
Pondering peace in the Middle East or processing political problems at home?
Susan Walsh/AP Photo
Long in the making, the US administration's Middle East plan was quickly rejected by Palestinian leaders. It was hardly surprising, as they took no part in its drafting.
Netanyahu and Trump, on the separation wall in Bethlehem.
E Keelan
A view from the West Bank on Donald Trump's 'deal of the century' for Israel and Palestine.
A Palestinian protester throws a Molotov cocktail during clashes with Israeli troops during demonstrations against the Israeli offensive on Gaza in November 2019.
(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
There's little hope as we head into 2020 that Israel will negotiate in good faith with Palestinian leaders. Yet Israel will never be safe from attack until it does so.
Israeli authorities demolish water wells in the area around the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, near the West Bank city of Hebron.
Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPA
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges Wednesday, both the charges and Netanyahu's response to them were reminiscent of the situation President Trump is in.
The winner of Tuesday's Israeli election must form a government and tackle four problems that will shape the future of the country and the relations among its citizens and Palestinian non-citizens.
On the same day, May 14, 2018, Palestinians protest near the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip (left) while dignitaries applaud the opening ceremony of the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem (right).
AP/ADEL HANA, LEFT, AND SEBASTIAN SCHEINER
About the only thing the Trump administration’s peace plan has going for it is the fact that no one expects it to work. And the plan's likely failure could trigger more Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
AP/Sebastian Scheiner
If Israel's longtime leader Benjamin Netanyahu loses in the upcoming elections, some hope that his removal will pave the way for peace. But there are several reasons why that's not likely.
Ahed Tamimi is in a courtroom at the Ofer military prison near Jerusalem, Feb. 13, 2018. The Israeli military judge overseeing the trial of Palestinian teenager Tamimi ordered all proceedings to take place behind closed doors.
(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Why do we know the story of Malala, the Pakistani student who survived a brutal attack on her school by the Taliban but not the story of Ahed, a Palestinian girl who stood up to Israeli forces?
In this September 1993 photo, U.S. President Bill Clinton presides over White House ceremonies marking the signing of the peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
Donald Trump's strong defence of Israel might be more boisterous than his predecessors, but it's consistent with the anti-Palestinian policies by previous U.S. administrations.
Demonstrators protest ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza as they march through the streets of Ottawa in November 2012.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Canadian aid to Palestine will continue to do little good if the Canadian government continues to ignore Israel's role in destroying the Palestinian economy and violating basic human rights.
Director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Israel Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Chair, Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst