Palestine: creative compromises can conquer conflict

It has taken less than a month for the euphoria generated by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution conferring non-member observer status on the "State of Palestine" to dissolve into a farcical denouement.

Mahmoud Abbas's folly in unilaterally approaching the United Nations in breach of the Oslo Accords has been neatly summed up by CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk in her article "Is Palestine now a State?"

In the end, the Resolution does not change the Palestinians lives on the ground, and it does not "recognize" Palestine as a state.

UN Special Rapporteur for the West Bank - Professor Richard Falk - offered his own prognosis on 2 January on his blog page:

At this point, I do not believe that the two-state consensus can be implemented, nor is the one-state alternative politically feasible.

Demise of the two-state solution is confirmed by the following recent developments:

First: Jamal Muheisen, a member of the Fatah Central Council, has reportedly told the Jerusalem Post that Hamas is conducting secret negotiations in an Arab country to reach agreement with Israel over the establishment of a Palestinian state with temporary borders in the Gaza Strip and Sinai.

Muheisen has claimed that the negotiations were being held under the auspices of the US claiming that:

Hamas is seeking to establish its own emirate while leaving the West Bank as cantons that are separated by settlements. Hamas's goal is to foil the establishment of a Palestinian state on all the territories that were occupied in 1967.

Second: The 2003 United States Roadmap proposing a two- state solution has disappeared off the radar with State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland only being able to offer this vision:

As we turn the calendar to 2013… now is the time for leaders on both sides to display real leadership, to focus on the work that's necessary to return to direct negotiations,

That option is unlikely to happen.