ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with the proposition that political developments and the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006 have sharpened the dilemma that has marked the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since the breakdown of negotiations at the beginning of 2001. The need to return to the negotiating table is more important than ever after the violence of the summer of 2006, but the obstacles to doing so have increased with the election of a Hamas-led Palestinian government and the rise and fall of the centrist Kadima Party in Israel. The author suggests a two-pronged approach that may help overcome this dilemma: a gradualist strategy of inching toward the negotiating table, in tandem with a visionary strategy of looking beyond the negotiations.
