Prof. Sarsar on Advancing Peace Between Israel and Palestine

Saliba Sarsar, Ph.D., professor of political science in the Department of Political Science and Sociology, has published an article on advancing peace between Israel and Palestine in World & New World Journal, which appears in seven languages; Arabic, English, French, German, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

In his essay, Sarsar argues that Israelis and Palestinians have become victims of their own exclusive national narratives and are speaking past each other. "While the obstacles in the way of progress to peace are numerous and real," Sarsar notes, "these must not delay or prevent the search for opportunities and positive outcomes."

Sarsar further suggests that because Israelis and Palestinians have proved to be both incapable and unwilling to restart negotiations on their own, "The United States thus must go beyond managing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to taking the lead to resolve it. It is indispensable for the promotion and sustenance of peace negotiations, as was recently shown in the diplomatic intervention to stop the Israel-Hamas War." He argues that the U.S. has the key assets to influence both Israelis and Palestinians to take the necessary political risks by compromising and engaging in unavoidable tradeoffs on the path to peace.

Read the full essay online.