The controversial decision to move the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a city that both Jews and Muslims claim as a holy city and rightful capital, was the spark that set off violent demonstrations in nearby (everything in Israel and the Palestinian territories is nearby) Gaza.
Dozens of Palestinians — not all of them terrorists or even demonstrators — were felled by Israeli bullets. The subsequent pointing of fingers, with Israel accusing the dead of fomenting terror and the Palestinians portraying them as innocent victims, only set back the cause of finding the peace that speakers at the embassy event claimed to be seeking.