Only Path to Peace Is an Armistice Now

[shira]

More than 16 years after the euphoria of the Oslo Accords, the Israelis and the Palestinians have still not reached a final-status peace agreement. The diplomatic stalemate discredits moderates and plays into the hands of extremists on both sides who refuse to make the concessions that any viable peace treaty will require.

Since an extended impasse is so dangerous, the best option is to seek a less ambitious agreement that transforms the situation on the ground and creates momentum for further negotiations by establishing a Palestinian state within armistice boundaries.

In diplomatic terms, this formula would go beyond phase two of George W. Bush’s 2002 “road map for peace” — which proposed a Palestinian state with provisional boundaries — by striving to reach interim agreements on all the issues but stopping short of actually resolving the final-status issues of Jerusalem, the fate of the Palestinian refugees and permanent boundaries. Such a gradual, yet comprehensive, approach would be more promising than further attempts at taking daring shortcuts. As the Oslo Accords demonstrated, giant steps generally result in deadlock.

Israel urgently needs to reach such a provisional agreement before the Palestinian leadership grows even more skeptical of a two-state solution. A small sovereign state within the pre-1967 boundaries has never been the fundamental goal of Palestinian nationalism; instead, Palestinian national consciousness has historically focused on avenging the loss of Arab lands.

more...
http://forward.com/articles/126499/

[demosincebirth]

1. Who's going to blink first?

[IndianaGreen]

2. The 2-state solution is as feasible as resurrecting the dead

The only thing we don't know is the nature of the 1-state solution that is coming into being as we post here.

[Shaktimaan]

5. well, that's just ridiculous.

What in the world makes you think that a single state result is inevitable at this point?

It certainly doesn't make any sense from Israel's perspective to allow any form of single state result. It is the least desirable result for them. Bearing this in mind, it doesn't REALLY matter if a peace agreement is ever reached. The worst case scenario would probably be Israel imposing a two state solution on Palestine, without any negotiations. In that case Palestine would be a small, fragmented version of its ideal state, without any jurisdiction over Jerusalem at all; similar to Gaza and the West Bank land east of the security wall now.

As undesirable and unlikely as this scenario seems, it is certainly more probable than any kind of single state solution playing out.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

7. The nature of the one state is plain for all to see: it has 4 tiers -- full citizenship for Jews

wherever they reside (hell, even in Brooklyn), second class citizenship for Christians and Muslims with the '48 boundaries, apartheid for Christians and Muslims in the West Bank, and concentration camp status for the mainly Muslims in Gaza.

[classysassy]

3. An honest broker for peace in the middle east

Why not the UN,most people outside of America,know we are not an honest broker.

[Shaktimaan]

4. Well, if the US isn't an honest broker,

then the UN would be even less so.

The US is the only power that really has the ability to make any peace treaty possible. They have the money, they have the influence... without the US the treaty with Egypt would have been impossible as well. And it certainly wasn't like the US could have been considered an objective broker there either. Other nations can be involved, like Norway was with the Oslo accords. But in the end it is probably only the US that has the ability to broker a comprehensive peace agreement.

The UN though... that organization would probably be the least able to broker any kind of legitimate agreement. Their track record is certainly awful on the matter, at any rate.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

6. Choo choo! That BDS/One State train whistle is getting louder and louder!

Though this "deal" would seem to provide Israel with all the benefits of peace and none of the sacrifice.