Peace process dead if Netanyahu wins Israeli election, academics warn

[oberliner]

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process is dead if Binyamin Netanyahu wins next week's Israeli election, leading academics have warned – even if he forms a government with centrists rather than the ultra-nationalist party Jewish Home.

The polls show Netanyahu on course to remain prime minister after the 22 January polls, with Labor the second-largest party and Naftali Bennett's relatively new Jewish Home coming a close third.

Bennett has said the conflict with the Palestinians is "insoluble" and a Palestinian state is not going to be established, and he has called for Israel to annex the 60% of the West Bank that is under Israeli military control – the so-called Area C.

But Dr Amnon Aran, senior lecturer in international politics at City University, London, told the Guardian that even if Netanyahu spurned Jewish Home and formed a government with centrist parties such as Tzipi Livni's Hatenhuah or Yair Lapid's There is a Future, there were a number of important factors working against peace.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2013/jan/15/peace-process-dead-if-netanyahu-wins-israeli-election-academics-warn

[bemildred]

1. It's dead now Jack.

Talk about beating a dead horse.

[oberliner]

2. Never ending conflict?

I do not see how that is sustainable forever.

[bemildred]

3. Perhaps peace lies hidden just ahead.

But I don't see any "peace process" happening right now, do you? What I see is wars and civil disturbances all about.

[oberliner]

4. Only God can make a tree

Darkest before the dawn sometimes.