Tel Aviv: In the last few years, the word “peace” has become something of a dirty word in Israeli politics.
In the wake of a string of unfulfilled efforts to negotiate an agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, followed by successive rounds of violent confrontations, the whole concept of shalom has come to be seen by many Israelis as naive, an idea whose time came and went.
Even the dovish Israeli Labour Party, which won major public support for peace initiatives in the early 1990s, has stopped using the word in recent political campaigns, preferring to talk instead about “diplomatic agreements” and a goal of “separation” from the Palestinians.
But US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East appears to be sparking a reassessment in Israel, both in the public and among some Israeli leaders, who see Trump’s forging of a new alliance against Iran as a possible new opening to settle a range of historic disputes.
Read the full article by Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Joshua Mitnick at Sydney Morning Herald.