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The Road to Peace

(U.S. News) Dennis Ross - At the joint press conference that President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held on Wednesday, Trump made it clear that he is committed to pursuing peace and that it is an important objective for him. It makes sense to see if the shared threat perceptions that have produced real, if low-visibility, cooperation on security between Israel and many of the Sunni Arab states can be translated into taking steps toward peace. Surely, there is value in testing what is possible, particularly with the weakness and division of the Palestinians making it hard for them to negotiate with Israel, much less concede anything. What is unclear is how important peace-making is to the Arabs. Do they see the gains from being actively involved in peace-making and pushing the Palestinians to be worth the risks? And, if they involve themselves in such peace-making, what will they want from the Israelis in terms of concessions toward the Palestinians? If Arab states decide that engaging on the peace issue with Israel makes sense, they will want to show that they delivered for the Palestinians what they could not produce for themselves. They won't drop Palestinian demands, they will come to represent them. The writer is counselor at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy and served in senior positions in the Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations.
2017-02-17 00:00:00
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