Why Israel and Hamas Balk at Peace Negotiations

Recent efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been complicated by one important factor: Israel's and Hamas' unwillingness to participate in negotiations. On April 30, shortly after Israel claimed it had assassinated the Salafist-jihadist allegedly responsible for the April 17 rocket attack on Eilat, 17 representatives from the Arab League met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss revisiting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. After the meeting, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al-Thani said that the Arab League delegation endorsed the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, adding that such an agreement could include a land swap.

Absent from the April 17 meeting were representatives from Hamas and Israel — naturally, the two parties most important to any peace agreement. But they are also the two parties most constrained in resolving their differences. The two sides will have to be convinced to come to the negotiating table before any attempt at reviving Israeli-Palestinian negotiations could gain traction.