Hussein Agha and Robert Malley, both experts on the Arab-Israeli conflict note that the “Shelf Agreement,” a not-so-new peace plan, is, in the final year of the Bush presidency (during which no progress has been made), being dusted off and getting another go. The concept is that Israel’s P.M. Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (both regarded as too weak politically to be able to push through any peace plan on their own) would sign a final peace treaty, the populations on both sides would ratify it, and then the treaty would be put “on the shelf” until conditions on the ground improve to the point where it can be enacted. Along the way, argue Agha and Malley, both Syria and HAMAS should be engaged and brought into the process.
Robert Malley served in prominent posts in the Clinton administration and Hussein Agha is a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College, Oxford.
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