David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations.
Articles & Testimony
It isn't too late for a two-state peace process, and bringing the land into focus proves it.
Vice President Pence went to the Queens Museum in New York yesterday to commemorate the site of the old United Nations, which 70 years ago today voted for partition to divide the land and establish Arab and Jewish states. The question 70 years later is, is West Bank partition still feasible? Aside from the issue of political will, many say there is no way to reconcile the territorial issue and point to the growing West Bank settlements. Critics on the right want Israel to annex much of the West Bank but fail to take into account the international reaction to such a unilateral move. On the left, critics even want Israel to be replaced in its entirety and become a bi-national Israeli-Palestine state. Both approaches are delusional. Israel is not about to commit national suicide.
Given the paucity of options, partition is still feasible. Indeed, the newest data suggests that the territorial dimension is solvable. A new website launched by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy called Settlements and Solutions seeks to use civilian satellite imagery to provide a better understanding of settler trends...