Trump's Middle East peace plan Smiles and sorrow on the ground

"When someone arrives to talk peace, prepare for war," an Israeli told me this week.

Palestinians and Israelis know from decades of history that past peace initiatives are strewn with turbulence, division and bloodshed.

But the Oslo Accords of the 1990s also left a structure in place, however fragile, that was meant to become the basis for a permanent peace - the so-called "two-state solution".

It calls for an independent Palestinian state made up of the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital, alongside a secure state of Israel along the territorial lines shown on the map before the 1967 Middle East war.

US President Donald Trump appeared to want to shake up the paradigm - claiming that it has failed for over two decades to achieve peace.

Even in the lead-up to Mr Trump's announcement, such a shift by the superpower sponsor of peace was causing consternation for many in the region.