Word: rabin
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...peace process of the 1990s collapsed in a spiral of bloodshed, and most Israelis have simply moved on. Opinion polls indicate that they would prefer a peace deal with the Palestinians, but also that most don't believe such a deal is possible. Yitzhak Rabin in the old days promised to "pursue peace as if there was no terror and fight terror as if there is no peace," but now that terror has been largely subdued, Israelis feel no urgency about peace. (See pictures of Gaza in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion...
...most moderate segment of Palestinian leadership, a two-state solution would have, at the very least, involved setting the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiation, and accepting East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. But Israel's political median has moved steadily to the right since the days of Rabin, and the minimum demands acceptable to Palestinian moderates are deemed too much for the Israelis. The militant settlers who believe they have a God-given right to build their homes in the occupied territories are now part of the mainstream, disproportionately represented in the army's mid-level officer corps...
Political leaders typically change course not because they change their philosophy, but because the cost-benefit ratio in maintaining the status quo no longer makes sense. That was true for Rabin - who embraced the Oslo process after calculating that Israel could not forever count on unconditional U.S. support - and also for Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. Rabin's cost-benefit analysis told him that Israel's best interests required moving toward a two-state solution from a position of strength, and the Palestinian leadership recognized that, as much as they desired a return to the homes and land they lost...