The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is one of the longest-running and most violent disputes in the world, with its origins going back more than a century. The consequences of the historic dispute over issues including land, borders and rights are still being felt and include the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and the latest conflict between Israel and Iran. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had said his country’s offensive would last as long as it takes to eliminate Iran’s nuclear programme that “threatens” Israel. But two days after US president Donald Trump brought his country directly into the Israel-Iran conflict, Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, bringing a halt to 12 days of fighting that had raised fears of a wider war in the Middle East.

However, far from bringing peace to the Middle East since taking office, Trump, who returned to the White House as a “peacemaker” in January, is now presiding over a region on the precipice of unresolved conflict and may be even greater warfare in the future, much against his hope that his move to bomb three major nuclear sites in Iran on Saturday night would open the door to a more lasting peace where Iran no longer had the potential to become a nuclear power. Despite Trump’s bravado, lasting peace looks elusive in the near term because after years of peace talks, countless lives lost and a tremendous amount of money spent, no one has found a resolution to the historical dispute. Moreover, buoyed by Israel’s triumph in successive wars since 1948, successive Israeli governments........

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