How long can this charade continue to function politically?

"How long will the Palestinian people sit by and watch with hope and anticipation these implausible efforts to fit the square peg of Hamas's attitudes and policies - intransigence towards Israel, commitment to armed struggle and religiously reactionary attitudes - into the round hole of the leadership in Ramallah which is secular, nationalistic and committed to a negotiated peace agreement with Israel? How can there be unity where there is no consensus on any major issue?

Palestinians seem to have little faith in any of their national leadership groups, and they came by it honestly. Hamas has been a disaster in Gaza, imposing quasi-theocratic and frequently misogynistic social policies, and engaging in reckless armed struggle with Israel at the expense of the lives of innocent people under their rule. The PLO appears to have largely run out of ideas other than symbolic efforts at the United Nations and other multilateral institutions that often carry more practical costs than benefits." Hussein Ibish Another round of Palestinian talks fail to deliver on unity

Palestinian Statehood

Few places in the region contain a population so traumatized, a youth so obsessed with conflict...

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Gazans often talk about the inescapability of war and the symptoms of their suffering. They cast Gaza as a prison — both physical and psychological, where Israeli bombardment comes every so often and there is little to do but bear it.

Indeed, there are few places in the Arab world where psychology and trauma are as openly discussed as they are in Gaza. But health professionals here argue that there are few places in the region that contain a population so traumatized, a youth so obsessed with conflict...

In the Gaza Strip, children bear psychological scars of conflict with Israel

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Israel’s hawkish turn

To reach a two-state deal, Obama must act.

Preserving the two-state solution

Jeremy Ben-Ami is president of J Street, a Washington-based organization that advocates a diplomatic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
 

A mere 24 hours after it takes office this month, President Obama’s new national security team will come face to face with a fundamentally different political reality in Israel and the Palestinian territory than their predecessors dealt with.

The real story of the Israeli election scheduled for Jan. 22 is the meteoric rise of the right-wing HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) Party and its new leader, Naftali Bennett. Likely to head the second- or third-largest party in the next Knesset, Bennett advocates immediate annexation of 60 percent of the West Bank.

Gone from Israel’s next government will be any semblance of a moderate voice favoring a two-state solution. Instead, the ruling coalition will feature leaders such as Moshe Feiglin, a firebrand who wants to rebuild a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, denigrates Muslims and democracy and suggests paying Palestinian families to emigrate....READ MORE

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Fatah’s rally signals new ties to Hamas...Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and advocates violence against it, while Fatah supports negotiations with the Israelis to reach a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.