Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 06/2014

U.S. Policy and the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, Part II: Assessment and Prospects

Robert Satloff

April 2014

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Abstract

The current impasse in Israeli-Palestinian talks is buffeted by a series of profound global and regional challenges, including Ukraine, Iran, and Syria, among others. In the immediate arena, while Israel and the Palestinian Authority may have dysfunctional political and diplomatic relations, they also have reasonably effective security cooperation and economic coordination. Therefore, a principal challenge for U.S. policy and for local leaders is to find ways to preserve, even enhance, the latter even as disagreement over the former worsens.