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http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=299
Format: PDF, 57 Pages Price: Free Download
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As the Bush administration draws to a close, various parties are looking to capitalize on the momentum generated by last year’s Annapolis summit and renew final-status negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Yet, although the need to resolve the conflict is clear, some have argued that neither side actually desires the current solution, at least as it has been traditionally formulated since the height of the peace process in 2000. Under these circumstances, it is important to explore other possibilities rather than insisting on a concept that has failed at least four times in the past seven decades.
In this Policy Focus, Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, former head of the Israeli National Security Council, illustrates how the conventional two-state approach is doomed to fall apart under the cumulative weight of the compromises that it would require from both sides. Even apart from the difficulty of resolving the core issues, new problems such as Hamas’s ascendancy have rendered the old model moot. Rather than maintaining a destructive status quo that hurts the Palestinians more than anyone, General Eiland offers two new proposals — a “Jordanian option” and a “regional solution” — that could help bypass the growing political and security obstacles that have impeded peacemaking for so many years.
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Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Giora Eiland is former head of the Israeli National Security Council, a post he held from 2004 to 2006. Previously, he served in the Israel Defense Forces for thirty-three years, heading the Strategic Planning Branch at the end of his career. He now works as a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv.