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Note to U.S.: We're Not Children

(CNN) Einat Wilf - After the most recent round of failed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the fact is that the sides are miles apart. At the end of the day, Israelis and Palestinians are not children - they are political players quite capable of making their own calculations and choosing alternatives that are the least bad from their own perspective. They might not always be the alternatives that outside observers think they should choose, but both sides should, as other peoples around the world are, be free to judge what is in their own interests. Both Israelis and Palestinians are also very much aware of the decisions they need to make if they are to come to a full and complete peace agreement, one that recognizes the right of both peoples to the land. If they don't make those decisions, it's not because they don't know what they are. One day, when the geopolitical and political stars are aligned, peace will be possible. But until that moment comes, no amount of external prodding is going to make the two sides take decisions that they just aren't ready to make. The writer, an adjunct fellow with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a senior fellow with the Jewish People Policy Institute, is a former member of the Israeli Knesset.
2014-05-02 00:00:00
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