CFR Senior Fellow Robert M. Danin leads a conversation on ending the U.S. policy of isolating Gaza, as part of CFR's Religion and Foreign Policy Conference Call series.

Robert Danin discusses upcoming peace talks between Israel and Palestine.

Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians have relaunched, ensuring major new challenges for both parties and the United States, says CFR's Robert Danin.

U.S. policy of isolating Gaza is counterproductive and inadvertently helps entrench the terrorist group Hamas' control. The Obama administration should instead encourage trade and contacts between the West Bank and Gazan people to reestablish national institutions and elections, thereby empowering Palestinian partners for peace.

The conventional wisdom has it that second-term presidents, freed from the need to win another election, tend to be bolder in their initiatives. While that logic may apply to President Obama's domestic policy, it is unlikely to extend abroad.

Read full answer

Secretary of State John Kerry gave this speech at the World Economic Forum, in Dead Sea, Jordan, on May 26, 2013. He discussed the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"Behind the scenes diplomacy could encourage positive responses from concerned regional parties, Arab and Israeli, that would give them all something to talk about," writes Robert Danin.

Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden met with a delegation of the Arab League on April 29, 2013. The group discussed the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the Arab Peace Initiative.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is not an actual government, nor is Palestine a universally recognized nation. Therefore, it makes little sense to speak of the PA's "foreign policy." However, when it comes to the PA's relations with its neighbors, the Arab Spring revolutions have been a mixed blessing.

Read full answer

Elliott Abrams analyzes the implications of the forced resignation of the Palestinian Authority prime Minister, Salam Fayyad.

Secretary of State John Kerry held this press conference after his trip to Israel on April 9, 2013. He discussed his meetings with Minister Netanyahu, President Abbas, Prime Minister Fayyad, and President Peres and speculation on the Arab Peace Initiative.

Elliott Abrams analyzes President Obama's news conference in Ramallah.

President Obama and Palestinian Authority President Abbas held this press conference on March 21, 2013.

Conflict between Israelis and Palestinians began even before the State of Israel was established in 1948, and the two populations have opposing claims to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea that have defeated numerous U.S. efforts to broker peace. Right now there is little hope of a comprehensive solution—one that resolves all the issues and involves not only Israel and the PLO but the Arab states as well. Today, the most that Israel can realistically offer is less than the least the Palestinians can realistically accept. For now, the best way forward is to continue talks, but to emphasize practical steps forward on the ground that move Palestinians toward construction of a state.

Read full answer

A former top National Security Council officer in the Bush White House tells the full inside story of the Bush administration and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Reza Aslan, CFR's adjunct senior fellow, leads a conversation on Iran and its role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Reza Aslan says, "It has always been extremely easy to inject God into political conflicts... But if we are to find an equitable end to such intractable conflicts as the one between Israel and Palestine, we must learn to actively strip them of their religious connotations. Otherwise, we will never stop fighting them."

The quest by Palestinian officials for statehood recognition could have major repercussions for the Mideast peace process. This Backgrounder outlines the potential impact of the UN vote.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave these remarks to the UN General Assembly on November 29, 2012 following the UNGA's vote to grant Palestine observer status.