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Armistice Now: An Interim Agreement for Israel and Palestine

(Foreign Affairs-Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Ehud Yaari - More than 16 years after the euphoria of the Oslo accords, the Israelis and the Palestinians have still not reached a final-status peace agreement. The prospects of a deal between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas are slim, since Abbas already rejected former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's far-reaching proposals - the sort of offer Netanyahu would never make. The best option is to seek a less ambitious agreement that transforms the situation on the ground and creates momentum for further negotiations by establishing a Palestinian state within armistice boundaries. In diplomatic terms, this formula would strive to reach interim agreements but stop short of resolving the final-status issues of Jerusalem, the refugees, and permanent boundaries. A small sovereign state within the pre-1967 boundaries has never been the fundamental goal of Palestinian nationalism; instead, Palestinian national consciousness has historically focused on avenging the loss of Arab lands. As the prominent Palestinian academic Ahmad Khalidi has argued, "The intention behind the state today is to limit and constrain Palestinian aspirations territorially." The writer is Lafer International Fellow at The Washington Institute and Middle East commentator for Channel 2 news in Israel.
2010-03-12 09:29:33
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