Dr. Shaul Arieli teaches at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Reichman University, and a research fellow at the Truman Institute. He is the author of A Border Between Us and You (2013) and All of Israel's Borders (2018), the Truman Institute Atlas for the Jewish- Arab Conflict (2021) and “How Exactly Did it Happen? 12 Israeli Myths about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” (2021). Arieli has dedicated himself to advancing an Israeli-Palestinian permanent-status agreement and was among the leading negotiators in the process that brought about the Geneva Initiative in December 2003. He headed the Peace Administration in the Ehud Barak government and served as a colonel in the IDF.
The primary problem with the use of the concept “shrinking the conflict” is its failure
to define the conflict as a national conflict between two peoples, relating to it instead
in terms of violence and economic distress.
The Trump proposal first and foremost deals a mortal blow to everything achieved
to date in efforts to reach a resolution, reviving the Israeli illusion of an agreement
without any concession on the West Bank.
A leadership that lacks the national responsibility necessary to resettle less than 1.5%
of the Jewish population in the Land of Israel/Palestine would not be able to cope with
the far greater challenges involved in realizing the idea of a federation or confederation.