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U.S. Policy and the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Robert Satloff - While diplomacy may be on life support, it is not necessarily dead. The real challenge for Israel is to sustain important security and economic relations with the PA while battling the PLO on the international political and diplomatic front. A look at the specific UN conventions Abbas signed suggests a long-term strategy is at work. The problem with this strategy is that it does not get the Palestinians any closer to statehood. Just as Israelis seek Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state because only the Palestinians can provide the legitimacy they seek, so too one would expect the Palestinians to do everything possible to maintain negotiations with Israel because it is the only actor that can provide the most basic ingredient of statehood - land. A Palestinian strategy of internationalization puts Israelis on the defensive. Israel is not without assets, however, including relations with key governments, international institutions, and private corporations that are more resilient than many believe. The writer is executive director of The Washington Institute.