We're seeing this same story again and again over recent months: Israel is internally conflicted on how to make peace with Palestine in general and clearly has plenty of reason to resist any accommodation with Hamas in Gaza, and yet, a viable state and partner continues to emerge in the West Bank:
Rather than cursing the Israeli occupation, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a former World Bank executive, has shifted the focus to building up the Palestinian state. Fayyad's government has improved security -- as Israeli army generals have acknowledged -- and the rule of law while also introducing far-reaching reforms in education, health and the economy. In its annual report on assistance to the Palestinian people, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development estimates that gross domestic product in the occupied territories rose 6.8 percent in 2009. The recently unveiled second-year phase of this plan is titled "home stretch to freedom."
Palestinians have launched a public relations campaign, "I am a partner," aimed at the Israeli public. Featuring key Palestinian negotiators, it seeks to debunk the myth that there are no peace partners on the Palestinian side.
Geographically split states just don't work--outside of federated, networked America, that is. At some point, it just seems to make sense that Israel will cut some deal with the WB and reduce its Palestinian problem to just Gaza. The West Bank, by most accounts, is doing everything possible to make this an inevitability through internal development that'll need just some reasonable accommodation from Israel to make it far more robust.
So the question becomes, What does it take for Israel to split that difference for good? Forget the big outline. Just tell me how this thing works in the WB.