President Donald Trump’s first major step on Middle East policy when he first took power in 2017 was to repudiate the decades-old U.S. position that peace required the creation of a viable Palestinian state – to visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent delight.

There are two ways to view President Trump's epic, historic, shockingly unexpected declaration Tuesday evening that the U.S. should seize, control, develop and hold "a long-term ownership position" in war-destroyed Gaza.