How Peace Can Come to Israel. Beware the Quick Fix

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Opinion How Peace Can Come to Israel. Beware the Quick Fix By Ami Ayalon, Gilead Sher and Orni Petruschka / On May 22, 2017 As we in Israel watch the events unfolding in Washington with consternation, and wonder what they and President Trump’s visit to our region will bring, it becomes more understandable that Trump wants to make the “ultimate deal” – an Israeli- Palestinian peace agreement -- in order to secure a historic success. We welcome this ambition. However, Trump and his team need to learn the lessons from his predecessors’ failures and use a different approach to achieve an accord. Moreover, they need to accept the likelihood that a comprehensive peace agreement is not possible now. In fact, if Trump will be able to redefine the process so that progress will be made that will be hailed as a major success and widely welcomed here. President Trump's visit here in Israel occurred two weeks short of the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War when the Israeli army defeated the combined armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan that attacked the 19 year-old nation. This admirable military victory, unfortunately, also marks the beginning of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and its effective rule over the Palestinians living there, now numbering some 2.7 million. …. Ami Ayalon is a former director of the Israeli Security Agency Shin Bet. Gilead Sher, a former Israeli senior negotiator, heads the Center for Applied Negotiations at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. Orni Petruschka is a high-tech entrepreneur in Israel. They are principals of the Israeli non-partisan organization Blue White Future. For full article, see: http://www.newsweek.com/how-peace-can-come-israel-beware-quick-fix-613372 .

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