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How to Unfreeze a Middle East Stalemate
(Washington Post) Dennis Ross - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is convinced that this Israeli government cannot make a peace deal - or at least one he can live with - so he imposes conditions on negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees these conditions as harsh and unprecedented, and doesn't want to pay a steep political price just to enter talks. There should be no illusions about the prospects of a breakthrough any time soon. The psychological gaps between the parties make it hard to resolve their differences and have bedeviled all the work for peace talks over the past few years. While there may be no early breakthrough on holding negotiations, one way to overcome the stalemate is for the Israelis to change the realities on the ground. One meaningful step would be either to stop all Israeli military incursions in Area A or, if there are continuing security concerns, to phase them out based on the security situation. Gabi Ashkenazi, former chief of staff of the IDF, has consistently said that "as the Palestinians do more on security, we will do less." Dennis Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, served as a special assistant to President Obama and a senior director on the National Security Council staff from July 2009 to December 2011.