Overview

• In a new book and NPR remarks, Hussein Agha and Robert Malley contend current talk of partition serves as rhetorical cover rather than a viable path to peace.
• Their intervention comes ahead of a UN session where several countries, including Australia, are expected to recognise Palestinian statehood, a move they say will change little on the ground.
• Malley says Washington long voiced support for peace without committing the necessary effort, while Agha describes the process as a fake enterprise built on illusions and misreadings.
• The analysis traces fading prospects to the post-Oslo era, highlighting Yitzhak Rabin’s 1995 assassination and the failure of the 2000 Camp David and 2001 Taba talks as turning points.
• They argue that references to two states help sidestep harder tools such as sanctions or arms-transfer restrictions and note that alternatives like a binational state or a Jordanian federation are implausible.