I've Spent Decades Failing to Negotiate Peace in the Middle East. Trump's 'Ultimate Deal' Is Doomed, Too

TIME

Having served as a State Department Middle East adviser and negotiator on Arab-Israel matters for more than two decades in both Republican and Democratic Administrations, I’ve seen and helped concoct a few pretty odd and mostly unsuccessful peace plans. But rarely have I seen an endeavor that was stranger than the recently released part one of the Trump Administration’s “ultimate deal”: a two-day, late-June meeting of donors from around the world in Bahrain, with hopes that showing the Palestinians how much better and more prosperous their lives could be will make them more flexible negotiators. Or, perhaps, persuade them to abandon what the Trump Administration considers unrealistic goals: statehood, with a real capital sovereign over most of east Jerusalem.