The Balfour Declaration: 100 Years of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Is there any prospect of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians? This book examines the reasons why innumerable efforts to resolve their differences have always failed, updates the history of these efforts and assesses whether there is any prospect of ever reaching an agreement. It places this conflict in the context of the turmoil in the rest of the Middle East and investigates the influence of one upon the other. While there are so many threatening neighbours amongst the extremists active in Syria, Iraq and Egypt’s Sinai making both Israel and the Palestinians nervous about entering negotiations, fresh opportunities may be opening up as new alliances are formed. These recent developments are examined in light of the one hundred years of history since the Balfour Declaration. Many of the misconceptions about that declaration are clarified and an effort is made to give the general reader a succinct history of the ups and downs of negotiations, when success seemed almost within grasp, only for it to be snatched away, usually by some act of terror. Why did they fail and how might the same pitfalls be avoided in future?At a time when answers to these questions are elusive, this book offers a reasoned attempt to examine what an agreement might look like and what steps may be necessary from both sides to begin the process.