Building a Sustainable Peace: The Limits of Pragmatism in the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

Abstract

This article argues that the strictly pragmatic, step-by-step approach of Oslo has reached a dead end and that cajoling the parties into signing an agreement is now irrelevant. To move the peace process to a successful conclusion the parties must now commit themselves to a principled solution whose key elements include prior commitment to a genuine two-state solution as the endpoint of the final status negotiations, provision of meaningful citizenship to the Palestinians of the territories and the refugees, and mutual acknowledgment of the other's nationhood and humanity. Such a proposal, though seemingly utopian, represents the most realistic option at the present juncture.