GAZA/JERUSALEM, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The failure of the U.S. initiative to push forward the stalled peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel, as well as the 50-day large-scale Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip in the summer, have induced a deeper tension to their historic conflict that has been going on for decades.
A real peace between Israel and the Palestinians was not made during 2014, as the U.S. sponsored direct peace talks between the two sides, after lasting for nine months without achieving any significant progress, were suspended earlier this year.
Israel has intensified its plans of settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, neglecting the Palestinians' outrage and warnings that such plans would endanger the U.S.-backed two-state solution for a real peace.
POLITICAL STALEMATE
George Jackman, head of the Ramallah-based Democratic Studies Institution, told Xinhua that during this year "there was no real peace process. All what we had was just what Israel wanted is to open a political track (that) aims at holding peace talks, without necessarily making a progress."
The political analyst said it's Israel that "led peace to a big failure, and the Israeli measures obstructed every single attempt to make peace. So certainly these measures ignited the conflict and left the doors opened for more escalation on the ground and kept peace stumbled."
During the disorganized and fruitless nine-month peace talks, Palestinian negotiators always complained to the U.S. sponsor that Israel constantly rejected to negotiate crucial issues related to the permanent status, mainly presenting maps and to agree on borders and security.
The Palestinians said that Israel has on purpose neglected the Palestinian side's demands to discuss the issues of Jerusalem and the refugees, while their Israeli counterparts tried all the time to impose their visions related to the future security arrangements.
Internally the Israeli coalition collapsed and its government decided to go for early elections on March 2015. Jackman expected that right wings in Israel will win this time because Israel is not faced by seriously international pressures.
"We don't expect any upcoming changes in the balance of power in the near future to resume new talks, and we don't expect that the winning right wings in the coming elections will be willing to make new concessions to achieve peace in the Middle East," Jackman said.
SEEKING UN RESOLUTION
In March, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas endorsed joining 15 international treaties after the UN General Assembly promoted Palestine as a non-member observer state. However, amid this stalemate, the Palestinians still threatened to join 400 international treaties and agencies.
The endless Israeli settlement expansion and other measures in east Jerusalem have made more Palestinians determined to join the international agencies and treaties. At the end of September, they decided to go to the UN Security Council to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and establish an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967.
So far, the Palestinians are still unable to gain support of at least nine Security Council members for their plan to end the occupation within three years and establish their own state.
Ahmed Rafiq Awad, a political science professor at Beir Zeit University in the West Bank, told Xinhua that the failure in the peace process ignited the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and created a comprehensive political vacuum that only serves Israel's current interests.
"The Palestinians attempt to internationalize the conflict with Israel (that) aims at filling the political vacuum amid an absence of any political progress. It also aims at confronting the Israeli settlement policy and the Israeli attempts of imposing facts on the ground that undermine the two-state solution," he said.
While the Palestinians are waiting for more serious international position to resolve their cause, during the last quarter of 2014, the Palestinians won a series of European parliaments' recognition on establishing an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
Sweden's government and parliament have officially recognized the state of Palestine, so have the parliaments of Britain, Spain and France. Awad said the recognition is a good step forward, "but it remains symbolic because it does not put Israel under pressure."
Dr. Alon Liel, former director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said there will be a continuation of the European "momentum" that will reach more governments.
"Once the large EU countries such as the United Kingdom, France and England will recognize the Palestinian state, there will be an earthquake in the relations between the EU and Israel," Liel said.
However, international recognition may be meaningless as long as Israel does not recognize the Palestinian state. Up until now, Israel has always had the upper hand on every possible parameter versus the Palestinians. Should they sit at the negotiating table as a UN member state, the Palestinians will have leverage that they previously did not have and force Israel to seriously negotiate with them.
Chico Menashe, a political analyst for Israel's Broadcasting Authority, said the current wave of symbolic declarations serves only as a form of pressure and has insignificant influence. But his outlook on a possible settlement is bleak.
"The chances of a permanent settlement in the next few years are close to zero. The main question is who will maintain or run the conflict, or reach an interim agreement," he said.
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