
After decades of failed negotiations, many argue that little that can be achieved in pursuing Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking right now. Yet parking the conflict or returning to the pre-Trump status quo ante could have serious implications not only for Israelis and Palestinians but also for the region and the United States. How can the U.S. administration do more by doing less and help reverse negative trends that are cementing occupation and inequality, while avoiding previous failed policies that have empowered anti-democratic forces in both Israel and Palestine?
Israel and Hamas have found themselves sucked into a conflict that neither side really wanted and that outside powers seem reluctant or unable to stop.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has to work through parties who are in direct touch with Hamas, such as the Palestinian Authority and maybe the Qatari government, to work out a ceasefire.
Egypt has presented an initiative to broker a deal between Hamas and Israel to end the current violence. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi cannot afford to see it fail.
Egypt is a party to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It probably has to be part of the solution. But it can’t play the same kind of brokering role that it played in the past.
Predicting how Hamas is likely to act and react requires probing what the organization can do, what it wants, and how it sees itself. From Hamas’s angle, the current fighting offers just as many opportunities as threats.
When innocents die, standard military metrics for success or failure pale in comparison with the human costs depicted so graphically in the media.
In the past, Egypt has played the leading role in brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the United States played more of a supportive role.
Engagements with Israel have a contradictory effect of bolstering the credibility of Hamas.
The United States has made the argument that the changed regional context should make Israel more eager to make peace with the Palestinians.
In response to the open-ended Syrian civil war and the policy dilemmas it raises, the Israeli government has essentially decided to take a backseat.