All Policy Analysis by David Makovsky

The recent events again proved the dangerous potential of the city's holy sites.

The tepid response to the deal by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu can be summed up in one word: Iran.

Israelis must recognize that the American aid that has deterred major wars since 1973 is not automatic, and U.S. Jews are instrumental in securing it.

Publicly at least, the president's first trip to Israel focused on symbolic rapprochement rather than policy pressure, but at some point the administration will need to clarify its next steps on the peace process and Iran.

The president should apply pressure on all sides, urging the Israelis to stop building beyond the security barrier, demanding that Palestinians end incitement to terrorism, and calling for Arabs to admit, at long last, that West Jerusalem is part of Israel.

The Israeli prime minister has taken pains to accommodate the U.S. president, overlooking some potentially troublesome developments, but many questions remain on how the parties will convert a graceful reception into tangible progress.

A review of a new book by Itamar Rabinovich, the late prime minister's ambassador to Washington, who details why Rabin preferred peace with Assad over the Palestinians.

The international community's vacillation and vague guarantees in the run-up to the 1967 war taught the Israelis an important cautionary lesson: when the chips are down, they need to be able to defend themselves by themselves.

The first summit between the two leaders is unlikely to result in any major initiatives, though Abbas could complicate future peace prospects or ties with the United States if he fails to deliver on Trump's initial requests.

Watch leading American, Israeli, and Palestinian experts preview Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas' May 3 White House meeting with President Trump.

Although Israeli trust-building steps are important, Palestinian leaders need to reciprocate by clearly showing their people that peace and terrorism are incompatible.

The prime minister's recent policy adjustment comes across as 'Bush letter minus,' though it may represent the first of several reciprocal steps still required to preserve the two-state solution.

The president's 'one state' comment may have been offhand, and the idea is a nonstarter in any case, but the two leaders did seem to agree in principle on a mechanism that would likely limit settlement activity.