Jerusalem is still on the table after Trump's decision
The US embassy move is a decisive step in deciding who controls it, but the contested city remains as explosive as ever.
Monday 14 May 2018 21:02, UK
Donald Trump has ripped up the rulebook of Middle East peacemaking with uncertain consequences for the region.
For decades one of the inviolable principles of peace efforts has been to leave Jerusalem to talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
The city is claimed by both as their capital.
It has at its centre some of the most geopolitically radioactive real estate on Earth. The Temple Mount or Harem e Sharif is sacred ground for both Muslims and Israelis.
It is the thorniest issue at the heart of this most intractable of conflicts.
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None of that has held back Donald Trump. He has declared the city the capital of Israel and moved the American embassy here.
His administration says there is still the possibility of Palestinians having their capital somewhere in the city or near it and that can still be decided in peace talks.
The problem with that is it has also done nothing to challenge Israel's claim of control and sovereignty over the entire city and nothing to stop Israel's ambitious plans to build in Palestinian neighbourhoods and evict Palestinian families.
And the administration seems to be at odds with its own president who has also said that unlike in previous negotiations, Jerusalem is no longer a sticking point in the conflict.
Mr Trump said: "They never got past Jerusalem. We took it off the table. We don't have to talk about it anymore."
But it just is not that simple,
Jerusalem remains as explosive and unresolved an issue as ever as tensions at the start of this week illustrate. Clashes are erupting on the Temple Mount and in the Old City, as radical Zionist groups march through its Muslim Quarter.
Whatever the US government says the perception among Palestinians and much of the Arab world is America has now sided with Israel in the conflict, and that perception could prove fatal to any chances of brokering peace.
Danny Seidemann from the NGO Ir Amim is a veteran Jerusalem expert who has advised British, European and US governments on the city.
"Since 1967 all political processes have been dominated and led by the United States," he told Sky News.
"Trump has delivered the death certificate to that. There is no political process. There is no prospect of a political process. American leadership has collapsed and there is absolutely nothing to replace it."
Donald Trump is reinventing US diplomacy in his own style on Iran, North Korea and Israel/Palestine. He has promised a new peace plan for this conflict but we have yet to see any evidence of one.
Another rule of this conflict is that violence fills a vacuum.
If no alternative Trump peace plan does emerge, that principle will also be tested.