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The Emperor Has No Clothes: Palestinians and the End of the Peace Process
(International Crisis Group) The current hiatus in the Middle East peace process is badly needed. The diplomatic lull is a chance to reconsider basic pillars of the process - not to discard the two-state solution, for no other option can possibly attract mutual assent; nor to give up on negotiations, for no outcome will be imposed from outside. But to incorporate new issues and constituencies; rethink Palestinian strategy to alter the balance of power; and put in place a more effective international architecture. The inescapable truth, almost two decades into the peace process, is that all actors are now engaged in a game of make-believe: that a resumption of talks in the current context can lead to success; that an agreement can be reached within a short timeframe; that the Quartet is an effective mediator; that the Palestinian leadership is serious about reconciliation, or the UN, or popular resistance, or disbanding the PA. The first step in breaking what has become an injurious addiction to a futile process is to recognize that it is so - to acknowledge, at long last, that the emperor has no clothes.