Newswise — Professor Ilan Peleg, a Middle East expert and scholar of Israeli politics at Lafayette College is watching closely as Israelis go to the polls this week. While many in Israel are mourning the recent Hamas victory in the recent Palestinian elections, he maintains that the peace process is not dead--and that a potential win this week by Ehud Olmert and his Kadima Party "might prove an historical watershed in the movement toward lasting peace in the Middle East." A win by Olmert, he says, opens the way for some "fascinating, and promising" developments.
Ehud Olmert, currently serving as acting prime minister, he says, might be in a position of doing what several of his predecessors-- notably Rabin, Barak and Sharon--were unable to do: determine Israel's final borders with an independent Palestinian state next door and bring the single most difficult of international disputes to its conclusion. "It would be ironic," he points out, "if the non-charismatic civilian lawyer could achieve what a long line of renowned, legendary generals could not accomplish."
There is, however, one crucial complication on the way to the two-state solution, he says. "The newly established Hamas regime in the West Bank and Gaza, must adopt a policy of moderation and compromise," says Peleg, "replacing its radical Islamism with a concrete commitment to lasting peace."
Ilan Peleg, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Government & Law at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., has written extensively on the Israeli right, including a political biography of Menachem Begin and articles on Benjamin Netanyahu & Ariel Sharon.
He is the editor of Israel Studies Forum: An Interdisciplinary Journal. In 1995-'97 he served as president of the Association for Israel Studies. More information on Professor Peleg can be found at http://www.lafayette.edu/news.php/view/8124/
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