SAMER SINIJLAWI

Real peacebuilding requires leaving the comfort of elite conferences and engaging directly with the difficult realities on the ground. 

Despite the crisis, the conditions for a diplomatic breakthrough may be emerging beneath the surface – if Washington is willing to rethink the sequencing and political assumptions behind its strategy

As Abbas tightens control, Western governments are applauding a Palestinian political system that has denied elections for 20 years.

The old peace process industry is failing Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinian local elections revealed a stronger-than-expected turnout despite boycott calls, signaling a shift toward accountable governance.

A reported Hamas offer to transfer governance functions in Gaza opens a fragile but potentially significant path toward institutional transition, enforcement authority, and phased disarmament.

The argument that Gaza’s future is “doomed” because Gazans are morally irredeemable is a prescription for permanent war.

One essential element remains conspicuously absent from the new peace plan: a credible, empowered Palestinian representative capable of engaging Israel directly.

As Gaza’s war nears its end, Hamas faces an internal rupture between armed resistance and political survival—that may decide its future and Gaza’s fate.

While Israelis are going to the ballot box for the 10th time in the last 20 years, Palestinians have not had the opportunity to choose their leadership freely for two decades.