Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 09/2010

US Hamas policy blocks Middle East peace

Henry Siegman

September 2010

Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre

Abstract

Failed bilateral talks over these past 16 years have shown that a Middle East peace accord can never be reached by the parties themselves. Israeli governments believe they can defy international condemnation of their illegal colonial project in the West Bank because they can count on the US to oppose international sanctions. Bilateral talks that are not framed by US-formulated parameters (based on Security Council resolutions, the Oslo accords, the Arab Peace Initiative, the "road map" and other previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements) cannot succeed.