Israel and the Palestinians: Conditioning and Capacity Building for Future Arrangements

This article presents the conditions required as infrastructure for future arrangements between Israel and the Palestinians. Given the failure of the negotiations between the parties over the years, the weakness and split in the Palestinian political system, and the erosion in public support in Israel for negotiations as a way to a practical and acceptable settlement, measures aimed at multistage construction of the infrastructure and the critical conditions that will facilitate a variety of operative options in the future are essential. Such measures should strive chiefly to improve the living conditions and self-rule of the Palestinians while maintaining Israel’s security needs, in order to create the environment that will facilitate future negotiations for an agreed settlement. This infrastructure and these conditions will also provide Israel with the possibility of unilateral separation, given a Palestinian refusal to coordinate these measures.