It's hard to see the process concluding in any reasonable way when you read through the latest document leak. The Palestinian Authority is increasingly desperate to agree to anything, while the Israeli government has little interest in agreeing to anything and the US has even less interest in making the process work. At this rate, it doesn't sound unreasonable to suggest that without some agreement, Hamas and Iran are likely to gain strength. The Guardian:
In an emotional – and apparently humiliating – outburst to Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, in Washington in October 2009, the senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat complained that the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership wasn't even being offered a "figleaf".
He said: "Nineteen years of promises and you haven't made up your minds what you want to do with us ... We delivered on our road map obligations. Even Yuval Diskin [director of Israel's internal security service, Shabak] raises his hat on security. But no, they can't even give a six-month freeze to give me a figleaf."
All the US government was interested in, Erekat went on, was "PR, quick news, and we're cost free", ending up with the appeal: "What good am I if I'm the joke of my wife, if I'm so weak?"
