Utility Menu

Search Section

Israel & the Palestinains: Ending the stalemate

Center for Security Policy | Oct 20, 2008
By Caroline Glick

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's July 30, 2008, announcement of his intention to resign from office and the recent upsurge in internecine violence between Hamas and Fatah operatives in Gaza has thrown a monkey wrench in the Bush administration's goal of seeing Israel and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority sign a peace treaty laying out the borders and powers of a Palestinian state by the end of 2008. But even in the unlikely event that such an agreement is reached, far from stabilizing Israel's relationship with the Palestinians, it will likely have either no impact on the Palestinian conflict with Israel, or a profoundly negative one.

Indeed, even if the outgoing Bush administration and the lame duck Olmert government manage to sign a peace treaty with the increasingly powerless remnants of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, that achievement is liable to be quickly eclipsed by violence that will follow the signing ceremony. The likely upsurge in Palestinian violence against Israel, in turn, will demonstrate that the Administration's stated aim of establishing a Palestinian state—an aim which is supported by the Israeli government—has little relevance to the nature of the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Moreover, seeking such a state today will likely exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, the conflict. Indeed, the aftershocks of such an agreement will make clear that both Israel and the United States are basing their policies towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on false assumptions about the nature of that conflict.

 

Continue Reading...

Originally published in The Journal of International Security Affairs

 

The Center's Publications

Frank Gaffney's Policy Decision Briefs are released weekly and sent directly to policy makers, coallitions, and the media for immediate action. Mr. Gaffney's weekly column is printed in The Washington Times on Tuesdays, and is also available at Townhall.com, Jewish World Review, and other websites.

Several times per week, the Center issues National Security Forum papers to inform and enliven the debate on issues vital to our national security.

The Americas Report is the featured product of the Center's Menges Hemispheric Security Project. Published weekly, it features in-depth, original articles on subjects not regularly covered by the American press.

The Center's Occasional Paper Series is an instrument for quick publication and dissemination of original research by CSP research staff and associates and the national security research and policy community beyond that.

While most of the Center's work is done behind the scenes, it does from time to time issue Press Releases on significant accomplishments, noteworthy events, or to set the record straight as a matter of public record.

Featured Expert

Nancy Menges

Mrs. Menges, the co-founder of the Menges Hemispheric Security Project, is in charge of the weekly edition of CSP's Americas Report.  Fluent in Spanish, she holds a degree in International Relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has studied at the University of the Americas in Mexico City.  Her postgraduate degree has been earned from the University of Maryland.  She has testified in Congress and submitted CSP's statement regarding US-Colombian relations to the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.