国际英语新闻：Israeli-Palestinian stalemate set to continue: analysts

JERUSALEM, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that 2010 had been the quietest year regarding attacks against Israel in a long time, but he also warned that "a complicated reality continues to surround us."

Speaking to reporters during a tour to the Negev desert, Barak also restated the need to achieve an agreement with the Palestinians, local daily Ha'aretz reported.

Barak's statement came one day after the Israel Security Agency, also known as the Shin Bet, presented its annual summary for 2010. The report said that there were no suicide attacks in 2010, and concluded that number of terror attacks declined, continuing a trend from 2009.

Talking about the prospects of a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians, analysts told Xinhua that chances are dim for quickly finding a political solution to the quandary.

NO PEACE PROCESS

Helga Baumgarten of the political science department at Birzeit University near Ramallah told Xinhua that it's time to stop talking about a peace process, since in her view, the process has not existed for many years.

"The issue is not what will happen to the peace process. The issue is rather when will there be a peace process again," Baumgarten said.

As far as seeing any peaceful agreement on the horizon leading to the end of Israel's occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state, Baumgarten said the two sides are at a dead-end.

Baumgarten outlined two reasons for the current stalemate: the first is that the Israelis are very strong and hold total military control of the area, while the Palestinians are extremely weak and totally dependent on the support that they get, or don't get from Europe and the United States.

Secondly, the present Israeli government doesn't seem to be ready to make any compromise leading towards an implementation of the two-state solution. In addition, it doesn't look like any power, be it the United States or Europe, on a secondary level, is prepared to pressure Israel.

"This leads us to two options, either we will see another couple of years with Israel being in control, building more settlements, deepening the occupation, and the Palestinians dreaming of some kind of solution," Baumgarten said.

"The other possibility is a frightening one: that things will simply explode," Baumgarten said, adding that it is very hard to predict what will happen. In any case, she concluded, if events do become explosive, it may very well happen in five to 10 years down the road.