ABSTRACT
One may contend that there were few—if any—possibilities for Israel to make peace with its neighbors prior to the "Six-Day War" of June 1967. The explicit belief held by virtually the entire cabinet was that the Arab states would never make peace with Israel, and therefore Israel's conditions for peace with Egypt and Syria were essentially hypothetical. However, the demand for Israeli control over the Jordan Valley, along with the annexation of East Jerusalem, constituted deal-breakers for any peace agreement with Jordan. The other post-1967 challenge for Israel was pursuing peace with Egypt. A resumption of peace negotiations continues to face some critical challenges—primarily from within Israel. The first and perhaps foremost is the basic, persistent mistrust of the Palestinians shared by the Israeli leadership and public alike. The second major challenge is the belief held by Netanyahu and much of the public that all of the ancient Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people—exclusively.
