Crisis in the Middle East: Is Peace Still Possible Or Is War Inevitable?

After a brief period of optimism during the summer—where President Clinton presided over peace negotiations at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat—the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated, and hopes for a peace agreement in the near future are now virtually non-existent.

Despite recent attempts at intervention by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, the violence in the region has escalated, with a Palestinian mob killing at least two Israeli soldiers this week, and the Israeli army responding by bombing the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Brookings foreign policy experts Richard N. Haass and Shibley Telhami will analyze the current situation in the Middle East and what may happen next, addressing issues such as why the peace negotiations collapsed without agreement, who is responsible for the current violence, and what prospects exist for reviving the peace process.