Let the People Decide: The Case for Soft Intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

THERE MAY still be one last chance for a two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This will require an immediate but radically different approach to the international community’s efforts in peacemaking. Rather than try to engage the two sides in renewed negotiations, President Obama, acting on behalf of the Quartet, should make an offer to both sides which neither side can refuse. He should present a summary of a pre-drawn blueprint of a settlement to the leadership on both sides, and rather than asking them to enter into a new marathon of negotiations over it, or eve... More

The Gordian Knot: The Israel/Palestine Peace Dilemma

THE ELECTION of Barack Obama opens the door to renewed peace negotiations over the Israel-Palestine conflict.  With the appointment of George Mitchell, the lead negotiator of the peace accord in Northern Ireland, as the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, the prospects for serious negotiations looks as promising as they have for several decades.  At the same time, this opportunity for peace may go nowhere.  In the late 1990s, the Oslo accords collapsed into the second intifada, renewed terrorist attacks in Israeli cities, Hamas missile attacks, the 2006 war in Lebanon and Gaza, a... More