A leading peace-making expert called on parties involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict to focus their efforts on a long ceasefire between Hamas and Israel and abandon the idea of a two-state solution, which has come to a dead end for the present time, according to him.Nathan J. Brown, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Gulf News that he sees no point in keeping the offer of the two-state solution open because such a proposal is not feasible based on the current level of enmity and mistrust between the two parties, especially after the Israeli war on Gaza in December last year.
He said the situation might get even worse unless the United States and other actors in the political scene of the conflict come up with a realistic proposal to resolve it.
The Washington, DC-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a private non-profit organisation, which amongst other objectives, works to promote active international engagement by the United States.
In a telephone interview, Brown told Gulf News the problem does not lie with the solution itself, but it is rather the realities on the ground and the collapse of the diplomatic process because of what he believes is the ignorance of such realities. Brown is the author of a comprehensive study about the horizon of peace in the Middle East titled Palestine and Israel: Time for Plan B, published this month by the institute.
He said leaders of both parties -Israel and Palestine, either do not have the will, are not able - or both, to entice their societies toward the necessary compromises that peace entails.
"In addition to the previous reason, mutual mistrust, political disarray and deliberate actions to impose realities have made the two-state solution impossible. The failure of the former US administration to fulfil its two-state promise has added to the complications of the crisis and resulted in the collapse of the two-state solution for a long time to come."