(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies-Bar-Ilan University) Arye Mekel - The current American "peace team" will find it hard to make progress for a number of reasons. The Arab world is preoccupied with Iran and terrorism, and they are less concerned with the Palestinian issue. Syria continues to bleed, the Palestinians themselves are divided between Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and tensions between the two are on the rise. Moreover, even if Israel were to offer the most generous possible settlement, there is no chance that PA President Mahmoud Abbas would sign the agreement. He would simply go on about the demand for "the Palestinian right of return." The Palestinians are also skeptical of Kushner and Greenblatt because of their Jewishness. The American administration hopes an outside-in approach that sees the leaders of the Arab world join the initiative would be harder for the Palestinians to reject. That will soon be put to the test. Amb. Arye Mekel is a veteran Israeli diplomat and former spokesman for the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2017-08-21 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive