Art of the Peace Deal: What Can Be Done in Israel and Palestine?

A series of circumstances currently present Israelis and Palestinians with a unique opportunity to resolve their historic conflict. The first of these was the election of President Donald Trump, who seems genuinely motivated by the challenge of succeeding where all his predecessors have failed: to bring peace to Israel-Palestine. Indeed, the president’s many naysayers, veterans of all previous failed efforts to resolve the conflict, seem to only increase Trump’s motivation to attempt the impossible. “We’re working very hard on it,” he recently said in New York, “Historically, people say it can’t happen. I say it can happen.”

Indeed, in the Palestinian-Israeli realm, President Trump already proved to be a very quick learner, not hesitating to abandon positions he expressed time and again when campaigning for the presidency. Thus, he soon urged Israel to “go a little bit slower” on additional settlement construction and he seems to have abandoned his commitment to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Second, Israel and a quartet of key Arab states—Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates—now share heightened concerns about extremism and violence in the region, as well as about Iran’s increased meddling from Iraq to Yemen. The latter concerns have only increased following the nuclear agreement reached by the P5+1 and Iran, as the deal provided Tehran with additional means to finance its activities throughout the Middle East. The members of the Arab quartet are also cooperating in efforts to curb Qatar’s support of extremism, primarily through the broadcasts of Al Jazeera.