This all against a backdrop of Israeli control spreading across the West Bank and the Gaza war grinding on. "There will be no Palestinian state," Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told settlers in the West Bank last week. Netanyahu has built his career on preventing a Palestinian state, and his government has pushed hard on expanding settlements in the West Bank. US President Donald Trump has opposed the recognition of a Palestinian state, but has not publicly criticised Israeli moves towards annexation. International recognition of a Palestinian state is a good thing, he says, even if little will change on the ground.