 |
| Volume XVI, Spring 2009, Number 1 |
| |
EXCERPT
Negotiating an Israeli-Palestinian Breakthrough
|
| |
| Alon Ben-Meir |
| |
Dr. Ben-Meir is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Affairs, New York University (alon@alonben-meir.com and www.alonben-meir.com).
During more than four decades of occupation, Israeli-Palestinian relations have been replete with intense violence, mutual recrimination and revenge, bringing the two sides on more than one occasion close to the brink of all-out war. Oddly enough, these years have also been characterized by the transformation of the conflict whereby both sides have edged ever so slowly toward accommodation. But 40 years of occupation and its accompanying violence have created psychological and emotional hang-ups that continue to haunt both sides and hamper major progress on key security and territorial issues that each deems critical to finalizing an agreement. Moreover, while there is clear evidence that the vision of a two-state solution is gaining greater currency, entrenched extremist groups such as Hamas and radical settlers still continue to seek all of Palestine or greater Israel, respectively.
|
| |
|
