The intractability of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: structural imperatives and implications for peace

This paper explains the underlying intractability of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by providing a theoretical framework of its multiple problematic dimensions and discussing empirical aspects of its structural complexity, including adversarial social psychology, shared indirect violence, and debilitated peace diplomacy. The conceptually driven analysis interprets pertinent qualitative information covering three decades since the beginning of the Middle East peace process in 1991 and expounds their implications for peacefully resolving this outstanding conflict. The discussion reveals that conflictive popular attitudes generate reciprocal distrust, indirect violence restricts the ability of the belligerent societies to realize their potential, and various diplomatic schemes have continually failed to resolve the conflict. Discussion of the incompatibility between the Abraham Accords and the Hamas-Israel war in Gaza further ascertains the resilience of the intractable conflict and vulnerability of peace diplomacy. Recognizing the incongruence between the intractability of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the direct forms of diplomatic interventions, the paper proposes the prerequisites of an alternative conceptual configuration towards transforming the conflict and improving its amenability to peace diplomacy.