Israel-Palestine: Illusive Peace

In the 1990s, a breakthrough agreement negotiated between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Oslo, Norway, set out a process for a mutually negotiated two-state solution to be gradually implemented by the end of the decade. Although the process showed initial promise and progress, a combination of dissatisfaction and distrust led to the breakdown and delay of the process. After frustration and provocation led to the outbreak of violence in 2000, the process proved difficult to restart before coming to a virtual halt after 2008.

Again, in May 2021 violence broke out fueled by controversy over planned evictions of Palestinian families in Jerusalem, and restrictions at a popular East Jerusalem meeting point as Ramadan began. Conflict between Israelis and Palestinians boiled over escalating rapidly into one of the worst rounds of violence between the two sides in the last several years.

Join host Tanya Domi and guests Rana Salman, Palestinian Executive Director of Combatants for Peace, and Kevin Rachlin, Vice President of Public Affairs at J Street. In this episode, these two advocates for peace in the Middle East—Palestinian and Jewish—come together today to discuss the drivers of the violence in the Middle East, which has proven to be a persistent and illusive peace.