ABSTRACT
The Israeli-Arab conflict, which has been a regionwide, interstate conflict, has shrunk to its original core: the Israeli-Palestinian intercommunal strife. The intercommunal strife became a conflict between sovereign states, the Israeli-Arab conflict. The dynamic of the Israeli-Palestinian communal strife is similar to that of intercommunal strife everywhere—from Beirut to Belfast. The inability of each side to accept the legitimacy of the other side even as an enemy—let alone as a partner for peace negotiations—is central to the understanding of the failure of traditional diplomacy in its attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The diplomatic peace process is a linear, means-end effort to transform war situations into peaceful conditions. In UN Security Council resolution 338, both Israel and Egypt had agreed on a means-end effort to transform belligerency into peaceful relations, within the context of the international system. The intifada arid the strategy adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization has forced the Israelis to confront Palestinian collective directly.
