Both Michael Doran and Lara Friedman agree that the creation of a Palestinian State in the West Bank is unlikely to occur anytime soon, but they disagree about the reasons why. To Friedman, Washington should nevertheless actively pursue such an outcome, while to Doran the many past failures suggest that such efforts would be wasted. More importantly, Doran contends that, under current circumstances, the creation of such a state would be deleterious not only to Israel but also to the Palestinians, to Jordan, and to American interests.

While many in the West seem to think the current fighting in Israel is about housing policy, or human rights, or the selective blockade of the Gaza Strip, the rhetoric of Palestinian leaders and on Palestinian social media makes clear that it is in fact about al-Aqsa mosque. This should come as no surprise: fabricated claims that “al-Aqsa is in danger” have been used to provoke anti-Jewish violence for a hundred years. In this particular case, explains Haviv Rettig Gur, both Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party exploited the claim in their rivalry for Palestinian hearts and minds: