[...] as Trump professed, much of the Arab world does seem ready to normalize relations with the Jewish state. Israeli political commentator Raviv Drucker said afterward that Trump's "understanding of the conflict is as deep as cardboard" and dismissed his ambitions as "almost charlatanism." The Palestinian Authority, an autonomy government negotiated in the 1990s, controls pockets where most West Bank Palestinians live but which amount to less than 40 percent of the land. Israel also controls entry and exit to the West Bank and travel within it, and the Palestinians there cannot vote in Israeli elections although Jewish settlers can. The Palestinians, despite winks and nods, never formally renounced a refugees' demand to return to long lost properties, a non-starter for Israel. Continued Israeli settlement construction and occasional Palestinian violence further eroded trust. In recent years quiet cooperation has developed especially on the intelligence front with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states — Sunni Muslim nations who like Israel see a threatening rival in the Shiite theocracy of Iran. The Arab League recently reaffirmed a 15-year-old offer of regional peace in exchange for a total Israeli pullout from occupied lands. Or incremental steps might build confidence: a settlement freeze in exchange for some normalization with the Gulf, or an expansion of the autonomous zones, or a partial removal of the blockade of Gaza. Both Israeli and Arab leaders seemed to respect Trump as a volcanic type of U.S.