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Comment and Opinion

Elie Podeh – 07/01/2011

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“As in oil and gas exploration, drilling in the Israeli-Arab conflict has recently produced hopeful signs. Yet these signs, too, have long since ceased to interest the public, and with considerable justice. After all, the Israeli-Arab conflict has included a ritual dance for years now called “The Palestinian track has reached a dead end? Let’s go, Syria!”

Since the 1990s, there have been numerous examples of switches between the two tracks, since the politicians’ working assumption is that diplomatic negotiations cannot progress along both tracks at once. Yitzhak Rabin, for instance, preferred to focus on the Syrian track, but later abandoned it in favor of the Palestinian track, which ended in the Oslo Accords. Ehud Barak also initially favored the Syrian track, but after he failed there, he decided to move over to the Palestinian track – where he also failed.”

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