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Source: http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2013/07/01/israeli-and-palestinians-what-if-they-get-to-the-table/
What If Israelis and Palestinians Get to the Table?
(Council on Foreign Relations) Elliott Abrams - What remains mysterious to me is why Secretary of State Kerry thinks progress will be made on final status issues if and when he manages to get Israeli-Palestinian talks started. What's new here that would lead to optimism? All that is new in the region suggests that making peace will be harder, not easier, than in the past when all attempts failed. There is a viewpoint that the two sides are "an inch apart" and just a bit of serious negotiating will bridge the gap, but that has always seemed nonsense to me. An inch apart on the many Israeli security demands, such as control of the Palestinian air space and electro-magnetic spectrum and of the Jordan Valley? An inch apart on Jerusalem itself, which great numbers of Israelis do not wish to see divided ever again? An inch apart on the "refugee" issue? To the extent that "everyone knows what an agreement would look like," both Israeli and Palestinian leaders and populations have for decades rejected those terms. One can be an optimist about whether Kerry will be able to get talks started and a pessimist about whether those talks will go anywhere.