Nov 9, 2023
In a scene that seems as unimaginable today as it did then, U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian officials gathered on the White House lawn in September 1993 to announce a new way forward. The signing of the Oslo Accords was supposed to mark a break with a violent past, leading to security for Israel and autonomy, possibly statehood, for Palestinians. After seven years of difficult negotiations that witnessed breakthroughs and setbacks, often overshadowed by outbreaks of bloodshed in the Holy Land, the Oslo peace process failed. A generation later, as a new war rages in Israel, the two-state solution is getting a new hearing. President Joseph Biden has said that once the current war ends, there can be no return to the pre-October 7 status quo and that the two-state solution must be pursued. In this episode, Khaled Elgindy, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Middle East Institute, discusses what it would take to bring about new leaders on both sides who are amenable to peace. The fundamental problems are the same today as in 1993, only with three decades of complications piled on. Still, it remains a conflict over land underpinned by assertions of nationalism and religious faith: who gets to live where and under what authority.