Shifting the Paradigm

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been waging for decades, in a never-ending cycle of military, economic and social confrontations alongside several reconciliation attempts between the two sides. However, since the First Intifada in 1987, several changes have occurred that converged in two main periods. In the first period, 1988-2000, support grew among both Israelis and Palestinians for the formula of “land for peace” and a small majority was formed on both sides supporting a political arrangement based on the two-state solution. In the second period, from 2000 and up to the present day, the trend reversed and faith in a diplomatic arrangement shrank on both sides. After Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, support for a political arrangement re-emerged, but collapsed again after the war in Gaza a decade later. Looking back at the history of the negotiations between the two sides over the past three decades, this essay asks the question: What went wrong? Why did the peace process fail and how can these learnings help us to reach a sustainable agreement in the future?