Has current Israeli policy toward Palestine helped peace prospects in the M.E.

[Jacobtm]

Do you think that current Israeli policy decisions towards the Palestinian state have improved peace prospects in the Middle East?

I can't find much evidence that they have. It seems regardless of what Israel does toward Palestine, that they will never be happy. Furthermore, even if Palestine is somehow appeased, it doesn't seem that others in the Middle East will stop hating Israel. And beyond that, to placate Palestine, Israel would probabally have to do stuff that would anger hardcore Zionists, and that could lead to things like Yitzhak Rabin's assasination...

[Jake]

Chances for Middle East peace were at a high point as of September 2005. Then came Peretz, Kadima, Sharon's stroke, and Hamas's victory.

Prior to that, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and further negotiations toward partial withdrawals from the West Bank were driving the peace process. What happened in the short time from Arafat's death to Sharon's stroke was just amazing.

[Beet]

Chances for peace were at a high point in 1993. They reached a lesser high point in July 2000. Clinton and Barak did everything humanly possible, but Arafat allowed the hardline conservatives to win in the end-- to the regret of Clinton, Barak, and most of all Arafat himself. He paid the price for it though.

In the past 4 years the chances of a negotiated peace have been zero. The chances of enforced, unilateral "peace" have not been zero, but they are not zero now either.

[MasterJedi]

Chances for Middle East peace were at a high point as of September 2005. Then came Peretz, Kadima, Sharon's stroke, and Hamas's victory.

Prior to that, Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and further negotiations toward partial withdrawals from the West Bank were driving the peace process. What happened in the short time from Arafat's death to Sharon's stroke was just amazing.

^^^^^

[??????????]

Both sides deserve each other. I'm beginning to really feel no sympathy for either side. Their was never any real chance at peace because neither side has really ever wanted it bad enough. Let them wipe each other off the face of the Earth. It's inevitable anyhow.

[Inverted Things]

The chances of peace in the middle east dropped to essentially zero during 1947. They have doubled due to the current Isreali policy toward Palestine, but twice zero is still zero.