By now it is obvious that the "ultimate deal" between Israelis and Palestinians, which President Donald Trump promised in his first days in office, was little more than an optical illusion. A series of conversations with Israeli, Palestinian and diplomatic sources depicts a very different picture. The diplomatic process is bogged down. President Trump is not involved in any way, nor does he have any interest in getting involved. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is severely disappointed with the United States, and the US "peace team" has lost what limited credibility it had on the Palestinian side. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government is rubbing its hands eagerly beneath the table and dismissing all the serious concerns that sullied the mood of the past few months. Nothing will happen, because there is nothing there, ministers from the Likud and HaBayit HaYehudi whisper with smug satisfaction. We can all calm down.

The story that best illustrates this situation occurred last week when the Temple Mount crisis threatened to ignite the entire Middle East in a global conflagration originating in the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Throughout that entire crisis, the US administration was effectively AWOL. Although they attempted to take credit for some deep involvement in efforts to reach a solution, the truth is that the Americans were not a significant factor during the harshest days of the crisis, when it looked like the entire Middle East would spiral downward into a new round of violence.

President Trump himself was not involved in events as they unfolded. His special envoy, Jason Greenblatt, lost his standing as an "impartial mediator" in the very first days of the crisis. One senior Palestinian source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that "Greenblatt picked a side and represented Netanyahu throughout the crisis." According to a senior Palestinian source who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Americans adopted the Israeli government's positions at every stage. "When the metal detectors were installed, they supported that. Then they supported the installation of smart cameras, and then, when there was talk of manual checks, they supported that too."

The Americans' behavior throughout the crisis only furthered the feeling prevalent in Ramallah over the past few weeks that Greenblatt and Jared Kushner are irrelevant. "It's not a nice thing to say," another Palestinian source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "but they are both ardent supporters of the settlements. They are completely unfamiliar with the other side, they don't understand the region and they don't understand the material. You can’t learn about what is happening here in a seminar lasting just a few weeks."