To Martin Kramer, the Trump administration’s recent proposal for Israel and the Palestinians is best understood as a partition plan and therefore, like the UN’s 1947 partition plan, Palestinian leaders need not accept it for it to shape the future. Indeed, Kramer believes it is unlikely that all, or even most, of the plan’s details will be put into effect—but that it will nevertheless have a lasting impact on the nature of the conflict, most importantly by demonstrating to the Palestinians that they cannot simply wait for history to reverse itself but must begin to reckon with the reality of Israel’s existence. Kramer discusses this and other topics in conversation with Gregg Roman. (Audio, 15 minutes. A transcript is available here.)

In the event that Joe Biden wins the upcoming presidential elections, there is a good chance that the U.S. will revert to the Obama-era policy of realignment with Iran, and to distancing itself from traditional Middle Eastern allies like Saudi Arabia. Richard Goldberg argues that Riyadh, along with the United Arab Emirates, can buy itself some security by establishing official relations with Jerusalem: