Jerusalem sources have stated that the Israeli public was very excited when Trump took office. They anticipated a fresh start after a fraught relationship with Barack Obama, who many thought was overly sympathetic to the Palestinians. But reality has set in as all Trump’s earlier talk of moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, of not worrying about Jewish settlements in Arab land and of dropping insistence on the pesky two-state solution appears to have been just that talk.

“He’s like any politician,” said Shlamit Lev-ran, 24, an art student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “They say one thing and then after they’re elected they do another. I see no difference.” Adler says he doesn’t think Trump and his deal-maker reputation will prove any more effective than Obama was in bringing a resolution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian standoff. For one, western logic simply won’t change the minds of very religious people.

Adler said "It’s very simple,” before repeating a Hebrew phrase used by politicians who shift their positions: “What you see from here, you can’t see from there.” Meanwhile all the trappings of a warm welcome are on display in anticipation of Trump’s arrival Monday. U.S. flags are flying alongside Israeli ones at Ben-Gurion International Airport, outside Tel Aviv. Posters declaring “Jerusalem welcomes Trump” hang across the city and are pasted to walls.

Currently anger is also building over Trump’s failure to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That was a promise frequently made during the presidential campaign. But Trump no longer pledges that, and U.S. officials said the idea has been shelved for now after realization that such a move would deeply offend Palestinians and Arabs at large who see East Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state.