Galia Golan is professor emerita, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of Israeli Peacemaking since 1967: The Factors Behind the Breakthroughs and Failures (Routledge, 2014) and, with Gilead Sher, Spoiling and Coping with Spoilers: Israeli-Arab Negotiations (Indiana University Press). Formerly a leader of Peace Now, she is now a member of Combatants for Peace.
The unproven argument that women should be included in decision-making regarding
war, peace, and security because they bring something unique to the table — the
presumption that they are more peace-loving — risks confining women only to matters
of "soft security."
The Trump administration's plan excludes the Palestinians, ignores all past negotiations,
core issues, and possible solutions and, instead of ending the conflict, perpetuates it.
Given how difficult it was to achieve mutual acceptance of the two-state solution,
a return to the zero-sum impasse over the conflict will likely only lead to continued
conflict and bloodshed.
Although the ambiguity of the Oslo Accords facilitated the actions of the spoilers that
ultimately led to failure, the foundation laid by the PLO's 1988 resolution and the
breakthrough that came of Israel's response created a positive turning point.
The political will of the Israeli leadership has been a key factor in past breakthroughs
and near-breakthroughs in negotiations to make peace, and presumably will be in the
future.
The most important achievement and potential of Israeli peace and human rights groups
may be in shifting public discourse and public opinion toward ending the occupation
and realizing the two-state solution
Israel’s stances on Jerusalem have evolved since the unilateral “unification” of the city
in 1967, but Olmert may have revisited the 1947 Partition Plan’s ideas
As none of the unilateral separation proposals provide a real element of hope, the alternative may be an international observer force or interim trusteeship.
