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Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/recalibrating-the-diplomacy-of-middle-east-peace-opinion-663262
Recalibrating the Diplomacy of Middle East Peace
(Jerusalem Post) Amb. Dore Gold - Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi, senior associates at St. Antony's College at Oxford, have been central figures in the Palestinian intellectual elite since they wrote for the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut in 1975. They were involved in repeated diplomatic initiatives like the Beilin-Abu Mazen Agreement, and Agha was a back-channel negotiator during the tenure of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. In February 2021, they wrote, "A Palestinian Reckoning: Time for a New Beginning," in Foreign Affairs. At a time when policymakers are rushing back to the "two-state solution," Agha and Khalidi move past the old formulas, out of recognition of how the Middle East region has changed. The most revolutionary part of their proposals involves a recalibration of Palestinian national goals. They admit that chances of securing "hard sovereignty," on the basis of "full and complete control over land, borders and resources," is remote. Their hope is that by moderating Palestinian goals in the direction of what they call "soft sovereignty," other arrangements might become possible. They depart from the conventional notion of a two-state solution and rather look to multilateral arrangements. Given the growing role of pro-Iranian militias today in Iraq, the need to have a regional arrangement once the U.S. goes has grown. If the Palestinians found their place in such an arrangement, undoubtedly the Gulf states would have a greater propensity to work with them - diplomatically, financially and otherwise. Agha and Khalidi's important statement opens the door for a new political discourse in the Middle East. It can only be hoped that their path to a new political realism is seriously considered and not obliterated by those still clinging to worn-out concepts that plainly have not worked in the past. The writer, former Director-General of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israeli Ambassador to the UN, is President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.