Failed Negotiations and a Military Confrontation

The Israeli-Palestinian arena of the past year was marked by four principal developments. The first was the failure of the talks between Israel and the PLO/Palestinian Authority (PA) on a permanent settlement, launched at the initiative of the United States and conducted under the mediation of US Secretary of State John Kerry. The second development was the agreement reached between Fatah and Hamas as a basis for the formation of a national unity government, even though no progress was made toward genuine reconciliation between the parties. The third was Operation Protective Edge, the military confrontation in July-August 2014 between Israel and Hamas and the other armed factions in the Gaza Strip that was the culmination of the escalation of the preceding months. The fourth development, which highlights the Palestinian intention to escalate the diplomatic campaign against Israel in the international theater, was the submission of a resolution to the UN Security Council listing the elements of a permanent settlement and requiring Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories by the end of 2017.